Investigation of Adding Ethylene Diamine Tetra Acetic Acid (EDTA) as an Inhibitor of Calcium Carbonate (CaCO3)

Abstract

The oil and gas industry requires scale inhibitors due to the inability to control scale formation which can cause many operational and economic problems. When oil and gas flow through a pipeline system, especially at certain temperature and pressure conditions, scale can form as a result of chemical reactions between minerals in the pipe walls. Decreased flow, increased pressure, or even equipment damage can be caused by this scale. The use of scale inhibitors is very important to stop scale formation, optimize the performance of production infrastructure, and maintain operational sustainability in the gas and oil industry. To overcome this, in this study ethylene diamine tetra acetic acid (EDTA) was used as a calcium carbonate (CaCO3) scale inhibitor using a method without the addition of crystal seeds (unseeded experiment) at a temperature of 90oC with variations in the concentration of the growth solution of 0,05; 0,075 and 0,1 M and inhibitor variations of 5,15,25,35, and 45%. The most effective percent effectiveness value obtained at a growth solution concentration of 0,05 M and an inhibitor concentration of 5% was 86.9%. The use of EDTA as a CaCO3 scale inhibitor using the unseeded experiment method can be considered as a solution as a scale inhibitor whose application can be used in the oil and gas industry.