Efficiencies of Anhydride Based Polymers As Antiscalants In Water Desalination Plants

A series of low molecular weight maelic-anhydride based polymers were synthesized in our laboratory which may be used as scale control additives to prevent salt precipitation from water. Scaling is a serious problem in water desalination plants especially for Reverse Osmosis (RO) membranes. In this paper we report some experiments with these newly designed polymers which have been conducted for anti-precipitation tests with CaCO₃, CaSO₄ and Mg(OH)₂ scales and calculating percent inhibition. The Scanning Electron Microscope (SEM) studies have been used to show photographs of the scales and effectiveness of these polymers as scale control agents. The efficiencies of these polymers in terms of % inhibition have been determined for various polymer concentration and pH levels.  Inhibition constant was also determined for various synthesized polymers. Results show that in some cases up to 90% of scales can be removed using these polymers with 2-3 ppm concentration level.