The Scale Formation of Barite (BaSO₄) from Laminar Flowing Water in The Presence of Tartaric Acid and Ba²⁺ Concentration Variation of Solution

The barite (BaSO₄) scale is a mineral deposit that can be precipitated during the process of drilling oil and gas in the offshore. Deposite scale in pipes can cause a narrowing of the diameter of pipes, and can reduce water flowing in the pipe. The aim of this study is to investigation the effect of the tartaric acid additive and Ba²⁺ concentration on the growth o the scale formation of barite in the laminar flow of the piping system. Solution forming barite crystal was prepared by mixing equimolar solutions of barium chloride (BaCl₂) and sodium sulfate (Na₂SO₄) with concentration variations of Ba²⁺ of 3000, 3500, 4000, 4500, and 5000 ppm. The flow rate of solution is 40 ml/min at temperature of 50 °C. Various concentrations of tartaric acid (C₄H₆O₆) of 0 ppm, 5 ppm and 10 ppm were added to the solutions. The formation of barite from the solution was observed by ion conductivity measurement. The obtained barite crystals before and after adding tartaric acid were dried and characterized by using SEM/EDX for morphology and elemental analysis, and XRD for phase identification. The SEM results show that the morphology of the crystals are star-like particles, while XRD analysis confirmed that the barite crystals were produced during the experiments are high purity. Moreover, the tartaric acid can inhibit the crystal growth of barite. (paper)