Inhibition of silica scale using bottle brush polymers

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-11873243-B2
Application number	US-201915734096-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	May 29, 2019
Priority date	Jun 1, 2018
Publication date	Jan 16, 2024
Grant date	Jan 16, 2024

Abstract

A method for inhibiting silica scale formation which treats aqueous systems containing silica with a bottle brush polymer. The bottle brush polymer includes a repeat unit obtained after polymerization of one or more anionic monomers, and a repeat unit obtained after polymerization of one or more polyoxoalkylene-containing monomers. The bottle brush polymer may further include a repeat unit obtained after polymerization of one or more nonionic monomers. The addition of the bottle brush polymer to the aqueous system results in the inhibition of silica scale.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A method of inhibiting silica scale formation, said method comprising the steps of: treating an aqueous system comprising silica with an effective amount of polymer comprising monomer A, monomer B, and monomer C, such that said polymer has the chemical formula:

wherein x=approximately 5 wt. %-approximately 45 wt. %; wherein y=approximately 55 wt. %-approximately 95 wt. %; wherein z=approximately 0 wt. %-approximately 25 wt. %;
wherein A is the repeat unit obtained after the polymerization of acrylic acid
wherein B is the repeat unit obtained after the polymerization of ethylene glycol methyl ether methacrylate
wherein C is the repeat unit obtained after the polymerization of one or more nonionic monomers selected from the group consisting of methacrylates, acrylates, and acrylamides.

2. The method of claim 1 , wherein C is selected from the group consisting of methyl methacrylate, ethyl acrylate, hydroxy ethyl methacrylate hydroxy propyl acrylate and cellosolve acrylate, (meth)acrylamide, N-methyl acrylamide, N,N-dimethylacrylamide, N-isopropyl acrylamide, N-t-butyl acrylamide, N,N-dimethylaminoethyl (meth)acrylate, t-butyl acrylamide, t-octyl acrylamide and dimethylacrylamide.

3. The method of claim 1 , wherein said polymer has a number average molecular weight between approximately 2000 Daltons and approximately 60000 Daltons.

4. The method of claim 1 , wherein x=approximately 20 wt. %; and
wherein y=approximately 80 wt. %.

5. The method of claim 1 , wherein said polyethylene glycol methyl ether methacrylate has a number average molecular weight of approximately 2,000 Daltons.

6. The method of claim 1 , wherein said effective amount of said polymer is between approximately 0.5 ppm and approximately 1,000 ppm.

7. The method of claim 1 , wherein said aqueous system has a temperature between 20° c and 250 20 C.

8. The method of claim 1 , wherein x=approximately 5 wt. %-approximately 30 wt. %; and wherein y=approximately 70 wt. %-approximately 95 wt.%.

9. The method of claim 1 , wherein said aqueous system is selected from the group consisting of cooling water, desalination, filtration, reverse osmosis, sugar evaporators, paper processing, mining circuits, geothermal energy systems, SAGD systems, and silica brine.

10. The method of claim 9 , wherein said aqueous system is said silica brine; and
wherein said bottle brush polymer inhibits the formation of colloidal silica without the formation of insoluble precipitates.

11. The method of claim 1 ,
wherein C is methyl methacrylate; wherein x is approximately 7 wt. %; wherein y is approximately 72 wt. %; and wherein z is approximately 21 wt. %.

Assignees

• Dow Global Technologies Llc
• Rohm & Haas

Inventors

• Deo Puspendu
• Abramo Graham P
• Young Kaylie L
• Mehta Somil Chandrakant

Classifications

• C02F5/10 Primary

  using organic substances · CPC title

• C08F220/06

  Acrylic acid; Methacrylic acid; Metal salts or ammonium salts thereof · CPC title

• C08F220/286

  and containing polyethylene oxide in the alcohol moiety, e.g. methoxy polyethylene glycol (meth)acrylate · CPC title

• C02F2303/22

  Eliminating or preventing deposits, scale removal, scale prevention (C02F1/042, C02F1/4602, C02F5/00 take precedence) · CPC title

• C08F220/585

  and containing other heteroatoms, e.g. 2-acrylamido-2-methylpropane sulfonic acid [AMPS] · CPC title