Impact of High Calcium Concentration on Sulfate Scale Prediction at High Temperature from 120°C to 220°C

Abstract

High Ca concentration up to 40,000 mg/L in produced water was observed in Marcellus shale gas wells, such extremely high concentration have great impact to solubility of sulfate scales. To evaluate this impact, the virial coefficients for Ca-SO4 ion-interaction needs to be quantified in Pitzer equation for different P-T regimes. More solubility data with high Ca concentration at high temperature (>120°C) needs to be experimentally determined. The solubility of anhydrite at Ca2+ concentration up to 1 m (mol/kg H2O) from temperature of 120°C to 220°C and at saturated vapor pressure was measured. A stainless-steel pressure proof reactor was designed to contain a Pyrex bottle, in which reagent grade anhydrite powder was mixed with salt solution of 0.25 m, 0.5 m, 0.77 m, and 1 m CaCl2. Sample was taken by using inner pressure to push solution through inline-filter, and then the Ca2+ and SO42- concentrations in the filtrate was determined by inductively coupled plasma optical emission spectrometry (ICP-OES) and compared over time to confirm when solubility equilibrium was reached. Results shows that current Pitzer's equation model (ScaleSoftPitzer 2017) predicts saturation index (SI) values with an error of less than 0.1SI at up to 0.77 m Ca2+, but shows an error as much as −0.21 SI at 1 m Ca2+ condition. For typical produced water with less than 30,000 mg/L Ca (about 0.75 m), the current model gives a reliable prediction of anhydrite solubility. If the produced water contains greater than 30,000 mg/L Ca, the model may yield error that are as much as −0.2 SI. Further experiments are needed to correct the Pitzer equation coefficients for better scale predication at higher than 30,000 mg/L Ca.