The Molecular Weight Effects of Poly(Acrylic Acid) on Calcium Carbonate Inhibition in the Kraft Pulping Process
Total Page:16
File Type:pdf, Size:1020Kb
The Molecular Weight Effects of Poly(acrylic acid) on Calcium Carbonate Inhibition in the Kraft Pulping Process A DISSERTATION SUBMITTED TO THE FACULTY OF THE GRADUATE SCHOOL OF THE UNIVERSITY OF MINNESOTA BY Matthew Richard Dubay IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE OF DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY Steven J. Severtson, Advisor May, 2011 © Matthew R. Dubay 2011 Acknowledgements First and foremost, I want to thank the Creator, my Savior, and the Comforter for their priceless influences on my life. Also, I hold an enormous amount of gratitude and respect for all of the people responsible for helping and guiding me as a graduate student. In particular, I would like to sincerely thank Dr. Steve Severtson for his seemingly unending supply of experiential wisdom and genuine concern for my progress not only as a student but also as a teacher, independent researcher, and leader. Beyond the classroom, he has been my mentor (and friend) in innumerable ways. All the members of his research group have been instrumental in my success as a graduate student –especially Dr. Gang Pu for the massive amount of time he generously donated while helping me organize this thesis and Dr. Jiguang Zhang for his help and guidance with polymerization techniques. I would also like to thank Dr. Andreas Stein and his group members (particularly Melissa Fierke) for their continual support and help with many of the issues that sprung up during this research. The other members of my thesis committee, Dr. William Tze and Dr. Shri Ramaswamy, were instrumental in their support and review of this thesis, of which I am grateful for. In addition, I would like to acknowledge Kemira Chemicals, Inc. for providing financial support. I would also like to mention that I never would have pursued this degree in the first place without the initial encouragement of William Hintze. Also, he generously opened his doors to me and even after my acceptance into graduate school, he and his entire family have supported me and provided not just a house to go to after work, but a home. I can not thank them enough for their love and support. i Dedication This Ph. D. thesis is dedicated to my parents and sisters for their unending love, support, and prayers throughout all the seasons of my life and particularly during my graduate school career. ii Abstract Calcium carbonate scale reduces process efficiency and control in kraft pulping operations. The formation of scale can be alleviated or at least reduced by the addition of antiscalant chemicals into the process line. A number of different antiscalants are commercially available but still little is known about their mechanism of inhibiting scale formation. This project focused on one class of antiscalants, the polymeric antiscalants, which are carboxylic acid containing copolymers, with the majority of their monomer residues being poly(acrylic acid). Scale inhibition performance at high pH and temperatures was characterized using a number of different experimental setups and the mechanisms involved were investigated. Performance tests yielded that the most influential characteristic of the polymeric antiscalants was the molecular weight (MW), and consequently, the molecular weight distribution (MWD) of the polymer species. Since commercial poly(acrylic acid) (PAA) samples have a broad MWD, atom transfer radical polymerization (ATRP) was utilized to create relatively monodisperse samples of PAA. These PAA samples synthesized via ATRP were used to investigate the effects of MW and MWD on antiscalant performance along with the mechanisms responsible for the observed optimal MW range of ~10,000 under laboratory kraft pulping conditions. The information presented here is useful both in identifying important properties of polymeric antiscalants and in understanding the mechanisms by which they inhibit the formation of calcium carbonate crystalline deposits in kraft pulping. iii Table of Contents Acknowledgements ......................................................................................................... i Dedication ...................................................................................................................... ii Abstract ......................................................................................................................... iii Table of Contents .......................................................................................................... iv List of Tables................................................................................................................. vi List of Figures .............................................................................................................. vii List of Schemes ............................................................................................................ xii List of Abbreviations ................................................................................................... xiii Chapter 1 - Introduction ...................................................................................................1 History.........................................................................................................................1 Industry nomenclature..............................................................................................3 Stoichiometric-based classification ..........................................................................4 Small molecule antiscalant adsorption ......................................................................6 Figures....................................................................................................................... 11 Chapter 2 – Testing of Currently Available Antiscalants ................................................ 14 Introduction ............................................................................................................... 14 Materials and Methods ............................................................................................... 17 Chemicals and Materials ........................................................................................ 17 Laboratory Kraft Digester ...................................................................................... 17 Parr Bomb Reactions ............................................................................................. 18 Temperature degradation ....................................................................................... 19 Results & Discussion ................................................................................................. 21 Laboratory Kraft Digester ...................................................................................... 21 Parr Bomb Reactor................................................................................................. 26 Degradation ........................................................................................................... 31 Conclusions ............................................................................................................... 33 Tables ........................................................................................................................ 34 Figures....................................................................................................................... 35 Chapter 3 – Commercial PAA Inhibition of CaCO3 ....................................................... 47 Introduction ............................................................................................................... 47 Materials and Methods ............................................................................................... 48 Chemicals and Materials ........................................................................................ 48 Solutions ................................................................................................................ 49 Experimental setup ................................................................................................ 49 Results & Discussion ................................................................................................. 49 Particle concentration ............................................................................................. 51 CLD analysis ......................................................................................................... 53 Conclusions ............................................................................................................... 60 Tables ........................................................................................................................ 62 Figures....................................................................................................................... 63 Chapter 4 – Synthesis of Relatively Monodisperse PAA ................................................ 80 iv Introduction ............................................................................................................... 80 Materials and Methods ............................................................................................... 82 Chemicals and Materials ........................................................................................ 82 Equipment ............................................................................................................. 82 Experimental setup ................................................................................................ 82