New anti-scalant performance evaluation for MSF technology

The desalination industries are looking for the reduction in the unit cost of desalinated water through developments in the technologies, process optimization, etc.; multi stage flash (MSF) technology has a proven track record for high reliability in the tough seawater condition. One of the technical barriers to improve the MSF system performance is the scale formation phenomena. This phenomenon can be manipulated by nanofiltration or by chemical treatment (anti-scalant). A pilot plant was constructed to evaluate the performance of a novel anti-scalant, under high top brine temperature (TBT) condition. Techniques such as atomic absorption spectroscopy and X-ray diffraction are used to measure the scale deposition in the test sections. Different operation parameters such as TBT, salinity, dosing rate, and operation with/without ball cleaning are considered. The experimental results indicate that the scale inhibition shows good performance after 72 h even for a low dosing rate of 2.5 ppm.