Rotating cylinder technique for assessing the effectiveness of anti-scalants.

A novel technique for evaluating the relative inhibition effectiveness of different anti-scalants is presented. The technique is based on the ability of anti-scalants to modify the scale deposition mechanism from mass transfer control to surface control. A rotating cylinder system which is known to provide well controlled mass transfer conditions is used to determine the scaling rate of a supersaturated solution dosed with various feed concentrations of an anti-scalant.