MINSC

MINSC (Mineral Scaling) is a European FP7 Marie Curie Initial Training Network (ITN) that addresses the current and future challenges of mineral scale formation. The research themes of MINSC relate to the mechanisms of nucleation, growth and inhibition of mineral scale formation through experimental and field projects.

Overall description of MINSC

MINSC brings together experts from 6 Universities and 5 Industry partners across Europe to provide state-of-the-art training in mineral scale research to Early Stage Researchers (ESR) and Experienced Researchers (ER). The research and training will be carried out as 13 parallel but complementary projects that will address mineral scale formation aspects at three levels: the molecular, the macroscopic and the field level.

Molecular level: 5 projects will focus on the fundamentals of scale mineral nucleation and growth of carbonates/oxalates (ER1, ESR1, ESR3), barite (ESR4) and silica (ESR2). These fellows will be hosted by the Universities of Leeds, Copenhagen and Münster with opportunities for research secondments to our other university and industrial partners.

Macroscopic level: 5 projects will focus on mineral scale formation in the bulk and link this with aspects of hydrodynamic modelling and scale mineral precipitation during fluid flow. These fellows will be hosted by CNRS (ER2, ESR5), and the Universities of Leeds (ESR6), Iceland (ESR7) and Oslo (ESR8), with opportunities for research secondments to our other university and industrial partners.

Field level: 3 ESR projects will focus on pipe scaling and fracture sealing during scale mineral precipitation at the field level. These ESR's will be involved in real tests at industrial pilot sites, and will be hosted by our industrial partners Reykjavik Energy (ESR9), WestSystems (ESR10) and Maersk Olie og Gas (ESR11), with opportunities for research secondments to our other industrial and university partners.

Individual Research Projects

Scale formation is a common and costly phenomenon in many industrial processes that deal with water or other fluid handling systems (i.e., wells, heat exchanges, tanks and delivery lines, etc.). In these settings, precipitation of scale minerals in pipes, on equipment or as fracture filling has a detrimental effect on process efficiency, cost and lifetime of processing technologies.

Scale formation is encountered in a large number of industries including paper-making, chemical manufacturing, cement operations, food processing, as well as non-renewable, (i.e., oil and gas) and renewable (i.e., geothermal) energy production and medical instruments. For example, it can cost up to €2.5M to repair a mineralized oil well. However, the reactions that lead to mineral scale formation and the methods that could reduce or prevent scale formation are poorly quantified. This is because industry does not have access to advanced techniques available at universities to investigate such processes, and because of poor communication and little direct interaction between scientists studying mineral formation reactions and engineers who need practical solutions to this costly problem.

MINSC hopes to remedy this problem by parallel and complementary efforts at three spatial and also temporal levels: the molecular, the macroscopic and the field level. To achieve this we will train 11 ESRs and 2 ERs via specific research project that will focus on the nucleation and growth of carbonates, barite, oxalates and silicates in the presence and absence of various inhibitors.

Initially the focus will be on studies in the pure systems to derive insights into the nucleation and growth of scale mineral phases in the absence of inhibitors. Following this we will quantify the role and effect of the various inhibitors during nucleation and crystal growth in solution and on surfaces and to compare and contrast the main parameters controlling reactions in the pure (i.e., no-inhibitor) vs. the inhibitor system at the molecular level.

This will be done via ESR and ER projects using in situ solution-based experiments, molecular modelling as well as surface growth processes. Simultaneously, projects at the macroscopic level will focus on growth in bulk, in porous media and under hydrodynamic flow conditions. These combined data sets will be included, tested and implemented in complex geochemical/hydrodynamic models to evaluate the predictive capabilities of our findings. Finally, projects at the field level will focus on implementing laboratory findings in real world systems. Ultimately, we aim to develop a robust predictive model directly transferable to industrial mineral scale related applications.

Information about the individual ESR and ER research projects is given below.

Molecular level projects

Project for ER 1

In situ nucleation and growth kinetics of carbonates and oxalates with inhibitors. Principal host: University of Leeds, UK.

Project for ESR 1

Micro and nanotomography of natural materials: Pore structure change with time. Principal host: University of Copenhagen, Denmark.

Project for ESR 2

Silica precipitation under geothermal conditions Principal host: University of Leeds, UK.

Project for ESR 3

Growth inhibitors on carbonates/oxalates Principal host: University of Copenhagen, Denmark.

Project for ESR 4

Barite surface growth inhibition Principal host: University of Münster, Germany.

Macroscopic-level projects

Project for ER 2

Carbonate scale formation in natural rock cores. Principal host: CRNS, Toulouse, France.

Project for ESR 5

Bulk scale mineral precipitation and the effect of inhibitors. Principal host: CRNS, Toulouse, France.

Project for ESR 6

Sulfide scaling and inhibitors. Principal host: University of Leeds, UK.

Project for ESR 7

Carbonate scale formation in porous media. Principal host: University of Iceland, Reykjavik, Iceland.

Project for ESR 8

Precipitation and carbonate and oxalate scaling during flow. Principal host: University of Oslo, Norway.

Field-level Projects

Project for ESR 9

Silica scaling in geothermal pipe lines. Principal host: Reykjavik Energy, Reykjavik, Iceland.

Project for ESR 10

In situ monitoring station for silica scale formation. Principal host: WestSystems, Pisa, Italy.

Project for ESR 11

Development of a model to predict scaling in oil field pipes. Principal host: Maersk Oil and Gas A/S, Copenhagen, Denmark (PhD program affiliate – University of Copenhagen)

MINSC Consortium

The MINSC Network is composed of 9 full partners and two associated partners distributed amongst 6 European universities and 5 European industries.