Environmental and economic benefits due to mitigation of calcium carbonate (CaCO3) fouling on brass heat exchanger surface with titanium oxide (TiOx) coating

Crystallizing fouling is one of the main fouling types which contributes around 25 % of the total fouling problems, where calcium carbonate (CaCO3) is considered a major element of crystallization fouling that causes severe heat exchanger operating issues in several industries. The mitigation of CaCO3 fouling by applying titanium oxide coating on heat transfer surface was performed in this study. Environmental and economic benefits due to the effect of coating on reduction of fouling were also evaluated. The outcome of this study illustrated that titanium oxide coated brass surface reduced the fouling deposition by 54.9 %in comparison to the uncoated surface. The economic finding revealed that titanium oxide coated surface could save approximately 4178.175 USD/MW/year, whereas environmental benefit evaluation illustrated that with the application of titanium oxide coating on heat exchanger surface can reduce around 1.51 tons of CO2, 0.03 tons of SO2 and 0.034 tons of NO2 emissions/MW/year of power transportation. [Display omitted] •Titanium oxide was successfully coated on Brass surface.•The physical vapor deposition approach was used to coat the Brass surface.•Titanium oxide coated heat exchanger surface reduced CaCO3 fouling.•Titanium oxide coated heat exchanger surface enhanced the overall heat transfer coefficient.•Titanium oxide coated surface reduced the tons of CO2 emissions/MW and saved 4178.175 USD/MW.