Assessment techniques for scale inhibitors performance in laboratory and real field: a comprehensive review

Abstract The deposition of inorganic scales is a significant problem in the industrial sector and desalination plants. Due to the crucial importance of injecting chemical inhibitors to mitigate mineral scaling, several testing techniques have been developed to evaluate their performance. The evaluation methods used can be classified as electrochemical, non-electrochemical, or static and dynamic. However, to date, there has been no comprehensive review of the literature that exhaustively groups and compares these different approaches, highlighting their advantages, limitations, and complementarity. To fill this gap, this review outlines these evaluation methods and explores their suitability and limitations in different systems. Furthermore, the review examines whether laboratory evaluation techniques are suitable for use in the field. It covers the main methods established thus far, focusing on determining whether they represent a scaling formation process that occurs in real life. This study concluded that the type of scales precipitated and the field conditions influence the selection of the optimal evaluation method. Furthermore, the use of multiple experiments yields complementary information for a comprehensive study of scale crystallization and inhibition.