Experimental Evaluation of Common Sulfate Mineral Scale Coprecipitation Kinetics in Oilfield Operating Conditions

Abstract

As one of the top three water-related production chemistry threats, mineral scale deposition can result in severe oilfield operational issues. Existing studies related to mineral scale deposition and control focus predominately on the thermodynamic aspect of scale deposition with little consideration of scale deposition kinetics. Coprecipitation of different types of mineral scales is a common phenomenon in both the natural environment and industrial applications. However, there are limited studies on coprecipitation kinetics of different scales, especially sulfate scales. In this study, coprecipitation kinetics of BaSO4/SrSO4 mineral scales in oilfield operational conditions was experimentally evaluated in a systematic manner. The impacts of barium to strontium molar ratio, scale saturation index, and electrolyte medium were investigated. It shows that the molar ratio and calcium electrolyte medium have the most significant impacts on sulfate scale deposition kinetics. This study can expand our capability in evaluating scale threats with complicated water produced compositions at operating conditions. The conclusions from this study can be profoundly insightful in developing an oilfield scale control strategy. The methodology elaborated in this study has the potential to be adopted as the standard procedure to evaluate scale threats when more than one type of scale are expected to deposit from the produced water.

Laboratory investigation of co-precipitation of CaCO3/BaCO3mineral scale solids at oilfield operating conditions: Impact of brine chemistry

“…Similar to the previously reported studies (Zhang et al, 2019), a plug-flow type tube reactor was adopted in this study to evaluate carbonate scale deposition behavior. The dimension of the tube reactor is 12.7 cm by length and 0.46 cm by inner diameter.…”

“…It has been discussed in a number of recent studies that thermodynamics and kinetics are two key aspects of the scale deposition process (Bukuaghangin et al, 2016;Sanni et al, 2017;Zhang et al, 2018aZhang et al, , 2019. Thermodynamic studies aim at understanding the extent of scale saturation and the amount of scale solid precipitated.…”

“…Thus, although thermodynamic studies have well established the theoretical basis of scale depositions, there are limited studies in the domain of scale deposition kinetics due to its complicated nature (Zhang et al, 2018a(Zhang et al, , 2019. Recently, a few studies have elaborated several laboratory approaches to evaluate the kinetic process of scale deposition experimentally (Bukuaghangin et al, 2016;Sanni et al, 2017;Zhang et al, 2018aZhang et al, , 2019. These experimental approaches include plug-flow type tubing device, once-through flow visualization equipment and rotating cylinder setup.…”

“…This co-precipitation phenomenon suggests that conclusions obtained from studying individual mineral scale might not be suitable for interpreting systems with multiple scales and the presence of other scales can profoundly impact scale deposition kinetics. In a previous study, co-precipitation kinetics of barium sulfate and strontium sulfate has been experimentally investigated at represented oilfield conditions (Zhang et al, 2019). A cationic solution containing Ba and Sr species was mixed with another anionic solution containing SO 4 species.…”

Review of Synthesis and Evaluation of Inhibitor Nanomaterials for Oilfield Mineral Scale Control

“…Common oilfield flow assurance threats include gas hydrate blockage, mineral scale formation, asphaltene deposition, pipe corrosion, and wax (paraffin) formation (Gao et al, 2006;Kelland, 2006Kelland, , 2011Kelland, , 2014Frenier and Ziauddin, 2008;Zerpa et al, 2011;Wang et al, 2018;Qasim et al, 2019). Together with pipe corrosion and gas hydrate blockage, mineral scale deposition is one of the top 3 produced water-related flow assurance threats (Frenier and Ziauddin, 2008;Kelland, 2014;Vazirian et al, 2016;Zhang et al, 2019a). Mineral scale (hereafter referred to as "scale") is the hard inorganic crystal deposit from the water phase (Cowan and Weintritt, 1976).…”