Received: 18 August 2020 | Revised: 24 January 2021 | Accepted: 13 March 2021

DOI: 10.1111/wej.12704

FULL LENG TH ORIG INAL RE SE ARCH PAPER

Scale inhibition in industrial water systems using

chitosan-­alginate mixture

Essam Khamis1 | Dalia E. Abd-­El-­Khalek 2

| Mervat A. Abdel-­Kawi3 | Jilan M. Anwar4

1
Chemistry Department, Faculty of
Science, Alexandria University, Alexandria, Abstract
Egypt
The study aims to establishing the possibility of using eco-­friendly natural polymers to
2
National Institute of Oceanography and
Fisheries, NIOF, Alexandria, Egypt
formulate scale inhibitor for industrial water applications. The performance of a blend
3
Department of Environmental of two natural polymers, chitosan and sodium alginate as scale inhibitor in compari-
studies, Institute of Graduate Studies son with a commercially available inhibitor formulation, HEDP (Hydroxyethylidene,
and Research, Alexandria University,
Alexandria, Egypt 1-­Diphosphonic Acid), is carried out using electrochemical measurements, conductiv-
4
Quality Control and Environment ity and NACE test complemented with crystals morphology characterization using
Department, Water Company, Holding
optical and electronic microscopic examination. Overall results show that chitosan is
Company of Water and Wastewater,
Alexandria, Egypt more efficient for the inhibition of calcium carbonate scales formation, whilst it has
poor efficiency in the inhibition of sulfate scales, whereas sodium alginate has the
Correspondence
Dalia E. Abd-­El-­K halek, National Institute highest efficiency in inhibiting calcium sulfate scales. However, the addition of sodium
of Oceanography and Fisheries, NIOF,
alginate to chitosan, as a package, has a dual control effect on carbonate and sulfate
Alexandria, Egypt.
Email: dalia1282002@yahoo.com scale formation with good efficiency compared to HEDP. This new phosphorus-­free
package represents an effective antiscalant to have green environment.

KEYWORDS
alginate, chitosan, desalination, environmental management, HEDP, scale inhibition

1 | I NTRO D U C TI O N
Scaling is one of major problems in many industries including oil, and
gas production, water transport (Guo et al., 2012), power genera-
tion, batch precipitation and desalination plants (Abdel-­Gaber et al.,
2008). The presence of a scale layer can cause a progression of
damages, for example, partial obstruction of pipes leading to a de-
crease in flow rate, impedance of heat transfer, increase of energy
consumption and unscheduled equipment shutdown. (Abdel-­Gaber
et al., 2008; Hasson et al., 2011). A widely used technique for limit-
ing scale deposition is by substoichiometric dosage of an antiscalant
to the feed water. Antiscalants are classified as nonpolymeric, for
example, phosphonate, phosphonocitric acid, condensed phosphate
or polymeric additives, for example, homopolymers of methacrylic
acid, maleic acid, acrylic acid and co polymers containing monomers
of different functional group (Amjad et al., 2014; Zhou et al., 2019).
Phosphorus-­based inhibitors can serve as nutrients leading to eu-
trophication difficulties. Permissible limits of phosphorus and heavy
metal are decreasing, and their discharges are regulated in many
areas of the world (Hasson et al., 2011). Studies have identified sev-
eral hypothetical mechanisms by which chemical discharge can in-
fluence marine ecosystems (Lattemann, & Hopner, 2008; Sadhwani
et al., 2005; Tsiourtis, 2001). Therefore, scale-­inhibitor chemistry
has moved towards “green antiscalants” that are biodegradable,
have minimum environmental impact, phosphrous free and are cost-­
effective (Hasson et al., 2011). Plant extracts were employed as green
scale inhibitors, and the results obtained have been considered very
promising (Abdel-­Gaber et al., 2011; Abd-­El-­Khalek et al., 2016, 2019,
Castillo et al 2009; Khamis et al., 2020; Vasyliev et al., 2020).
Also, Poly (aspartic acid), Poly (maleic acid) (PMA) (Li et al., 2019;
Martinod et al., 2008, 2009) and poly (carboxylic acid)-­based chem-
icals are considered as environmentally friendly, biodegradable an-
tiscalants (Amjad, 2012; Li et al., 2006; Wang et al., 2013). In recent
years, some biopolymers were evaluated as scale inhibitors such
as carboxymethyl inulin (Boels & Witkamp, 2011; Kırboga & Öner,
2012), carboxymethyl cellulose (Saleah & Basta, 2008), guar and

Water and Environment Journal. 2021;00:1–11. wileyonlinelibrary.com/journal/wej © 2021 CIWEM | 1

2 | KHAMIS et al.

xanthan gums (Elkholy et al., 2018) and starch-­based biopolymers

(Romero et al., 2007; Saleah & Basta, 2008; Yu et al., 2018).
Sodium alginate and chitosan (CS) are biodegradable polymers
which can be produced at an estimated amount of millions tons per year
from brown algae and crustacean shells, respectively (Ahmed et al.,
2012; Davies, 2002). It was reported that sodium alginate reduces the
rates of crystal growth of calcium carbonate measured under physio-
logical conditions (Manoli, & Dalas, 2002). Also, chitosan derivatives
are currently being explored intensively for their applications in water
and wastewater treatment, and various modified chitosan have been
studied as CaCO3scale inhibitor (Guo et al., 2012; Macedo et al.,2019;
Zeng et al., 2015; Zhang et al., 2015;) using conductivity and other bulk
precipitation tests. However, these tests provide a poor characteriza-
tion of antiscalant inhibitory capability because they do not provide
any information on the adhesive properties of the scale (Abdel-­Gaber
F I G U R E 1 Structural formula of (a) chitosan and (b) sodium
et al., 2012; Hasson et al., 2011). The consequences of the presence
alginate
of scale on the surface are more problematic than precipitation in the
bulk solution. Thus, the electrochemical method is a more recent way
of studying the buildup of calcium carbonate layers in different media Calcium brine: 7.5 g/L NaCl +11.0 g/L CaCl2.2H2O and sulfate brine:
(Abdel-­
Gaber et al., 2008; Abd-­
El-­
Khalek & Abd-­
El-­
Nabey, 2013; 7.5 g/L NaCl +10.66 g/L NaSO4; 50 ml of each brine solutions was con-
Marin-­Cruz et al., 2004; Marin-­Cruz & Gonzalez, 2002). nected in the test cell with different concentration of sodium alginate
This study aims to investigate chitosan and sodium alginate as and chitosan. Testing cells were placed in the water bath set at 71°C for
environmentally friendly inhibitors for carbonate and sulfate scales 72 h. After that, the concentration level of calcium ions was determined
formation using electrochemical techniques in addition to bulk in the solution by titration with EDTA and Murexide indicator.
tests and microscopic examination. Antiscalent performance of Equation (1) was employed to calculate percent of scale inhibition:
chitosan and sodium alginate was compared with the performance
of commercially available antiscalant HEDP (Hydroxyethylidene-­1,
( )
Ca − Cb
% Inhibition = 100 × ( (1)
1-­Diphosphonic Acid). As is known, phosphonates are generally con-
)
Cc − Cb
sidered as scale inhibitors for CaCO3and CaSO 4 scales because they
have a high tolerance for calcium ions. where Ca = Ca2+ concentration in the treated sample after pre-
cipitation; Cb = Ca2+concentration in the blank after precipitation;
Cc = Ca2+concentration in the blank before precipitation.
2 | M ATE R I A L S A N D M E TH O DS

2.1 | Preparation of solutions 2.3 | Conductivity test for CaCO3 scaling

The chitosan with a degree of deacetylation of at least 70% was ob-
tained from Chitopharm™, Norway (Figure 1). Chitosan solution was
prepared by dissolving 0.5 g in 100 ml of 0.1 M acetic acid under
stirring at room temperature with a pH of about 4 (Ahmed et al.,
2012). Sodium alginate (sodium salt of alginic acid) was supplied by
CDH (P) Ltd., India, with chemical structure shown in Figure 1. Stock
solution of sodium alginate was obtained by dissolving 1 g of sodium
alginate in 1 L distillated water. Double distilled water and analytical
reagent-­grade NaCl, NaHCO3, Na2CO3, Na2SO 4 and CaCl2were used
for preparing brine solutions (Lin & Dexter, 1988).
Conductivity test was performed as described formerly (Drela et al.,
1998). Prior each experiment, 5 ml of 0.1 M CaCl2 solution is added to
appropriate volume of the stock solution of suggested inhibitor and
then the mixture is completed to 100 ml by doubly distilled water.
The conductivity of stirred solution is monitored during titration by
0.1 M Na2CO3 using HQ14d conductivity meter at 25.0 ± 0.1°C.
2.4 | Electrochemical measurements for
CaCO3 scaling

The electrochemical measurements were carried out in a cell with

2.2 | NACE test for calcium sulfate scaling
The test method was described previously (Boris et al., 2007; NACE
Standard TM 0374-­2001, 2001). For the test, synthetic brines were
prepared as follows.
three-­electrode mode (Abd-­El-­K halek & Abd-­El-­Nabey, 2013);
platinum sheet and saturated calomel electrode (SCE) were used
as counter and reference electrodes, respectively. The work-
ing electrode was steel that had the following chemical compo-
sition (wt. %): C, 0.21; S, 0.04; Mn, 2.5; P, 0.04; Si, 0.35; balance
KHAMIS et al.
Fe. Chronoamperometry and electrochemical impedance meas-
urements were performed using Gamery instrument G300™
Potentiostat/ Galvanostat/ ZRA. Chronoamperometry curves were
carried out by polarizing the steel electrode to −1 V (vs. SCE) in test
solution for 3 h. Thus, the current passing through the steel elec-
trode, during calcareous deposits, is recorded with respect to time.
EIS measurements were done after scale deposition process. The
frequency range for EIS measurements was 0.1 to 1 × 104 Hz with
applied potential signal amplitude of 10 mV. All the measurements
were done at 40.0 ± 0.1°C. To test the reliability and reproducibil-
ity of the measurements, triplicate experiments were performed in
each case at the same conditions.
2.5 | Microscopic examination
The morphology and crystal lattices of scale were observed with
optical microscope (Axioskop 40 “Ziess”) and scanning electron
microscope, SEM, (JEOL-­5300 Scanning microscope). Prior to SEM
examination, scale crystals were sputter-­coated with a thin film of
gold under vacuum.
3 | R E S U LT S A N D D I S CU S S I O N
3.1 | Calcium sulfate scales testing
Figure 2 shows the variation of percentage inhibition of calcium sul-
fate scale with concentration of sodium alginate, chitosan and HEDP.
It is clear that sodium alginate has the highest efficiency for CaSO 4
scale inhibition, whilst chitosan shows poor effect towards calcium
sulfate inhibition. Moreover, increasing the concentration of sodium
alginate increases the percentage of calcium sulfate scale inhibition
and plateau region is observed after 50 ppm (100%).
120
100
80
% of scale inhibtion
60
40
20
F I G U R E 2 Variation of percentage
0
inhibition of calcium sulfate scale with
0 20
different concentrations of sodium
alginate, chitosan and HEDP
| 3
Optical photographs of CaSO 4 crystals after precipitation in
absence and presence of optimum concentrations of sodium al-
ginate and chitosan were presented in Figure 3. As seen, tubular
structure of CaSO 4 crystals is observed in the absence of anti-
scalant (Shakkthivel & Vasudevan, 2006). The addition of sodium
alginate and HEDP modified CaSO 4 crystals and decreased their
size, whilst reduced crystal quantity in presence of chitosan ac-
complished with low degree of modification of rode edges. It is
possible to predict that carboxylate and phosphonate groups
in sodium alginate and HEDP, respectively, capture Ca2+ ions in
solutions or from the surface of inorganic minerals (Hoang, 2015;
Zhang,et al., 2017). Figure 4 illustrates the interaction between
negative charge on oxygen of alginate and Ca2+ ion. This interferes
with the formation of the crystals, so the crystal growth cannot be
fully consistent with normal lattices; thus, irregular shapes were
formed. Increasing the efficiency of sodium alginate can be at-
tributed to the presence of hydroxyl group which coordinate sur-
face cations and forming hydrogen bridges with surface anions or
water molecules in gypsum because of its high crystalline water
content and being very sensitive to the hydrogen bonding facilities
(Hoang, 2015).
3.2 | Calcium carbonate scales testing
3.2.1 | Conductivity test
The conductivity test was used as a first step to test the efficiency
of the proposed inhibitors towards CaCO3 scale formation. In this
section, the conductivity was monitored whilst calcination of cal-
cium carbonate from the calcium chloride solution was carried
out by adding sodium carbonate. It is known that nucleation is the
first step in precipitation, and this also applies for the scaling de-
posit. The super saturation point, S, is a key point in homogeneous
sodium alginate
chitosan
HEDP
40 60 80 100 120
concentration of antiscalant,ppm
4 |
Blank Sodium alginate (50ppm),4X
Chitosan(10ppm),4X HEDP
F I G U R E 3 Optical photographs of CaSO 4 crystals after
precipitation in absence and presence of suggested scale inhibitors
at their optimum concentration
F I G U R E 4 Interaction of alginate with Ca2+ ion
nucleation. When the ion product is beyond this point, the ho-
mogeneous nucleation rate is suddenly increased, which results
in precipitation and scaling (Abdel-­G aber et al., 2008; Drela et al.,
1998).
Dependence of super saturation point of calcium carbonate
scale at different concentrations of sodium alginate, chitosan and
HEDP was illustrated in Figure 5. As seen, addition of sodium al-
ginate has no change in super saturation point. On other hand,
KHAMIS et al.
addition of chitosan or HEDP impedes the super saturation point
and consequently retards calcium carbonate scales. In addition, the
increased concentration of both inhibitors increases the value of
the super saturation point. This can be attributed to the complex
formation capacity of chitosan or HEDP with cations, thereby re-
ducing the nucleation rate and the growth of crystals. Also, chi-
tosan can react with sodium carbonate and form soluble complexes
(Qian et al., 2018). A carbonate is bound to either two protonated
amino groups in chitosan to form a complex, or one protonated
amino group and one sodium ion.
Figure 6 shows SEM photographs of CaCO3crystals after pre-
cipitation in the absence and presence of the suggested scale in-
hibitors. As seen, cubic structure of calcium carbonate crystals was
observed in the absence of antiscalants. Addition of chitosan mod-
ified the cubic structure into spherical shape and reduced its size.
This is probably related to the presence of NH2+ and OH− groups
in chitosan which can bind Ca2+ through their lone pair of elec-
trons. Chitosan can then occupy the growing points of the initially
formed crystals, and the crystal morphology is then changed, lead-
ing to deformation and preventing further crystal growth. Also,
these functional groups can interact with calcium ions present in
the media preventing the Ca2+arrival at the surface of scale nuclei
(Elkholy et al., 2018; Macedo et al., 2019; Yang et al., 2010; Zhang
et al., 2015). Whilst in the presence of HEDP, calcium carbonate
particles lost their sharp edges and exhibited great irregularity in
the morphology of the scale and seemed as a spongy structure
(Garcia et al., 2001).
However, the addition of sodium alginate had no change in super
saturation point; the cubic shapes of CaCO3 were modified into
spherical shape. It is clear that the modification begins at low con-
centration (25 ppm) due to cross-­linking between alginate and Ca2+
cations onto CaCO3 crystal, and complete modification is observed
at 1000 ppm of sodium alginate. Interaction between Ca2+ ions and
sodium alginate led to Ca2+ being immeasurable in conductivity
test. This observation indicates that accuracy of conductivity test
depends on strength of interaction between cations and the inhibi-
tor in addition to type of complex formed. It can be concluded that
conductivity test is a screening test designed to measure the ability
of inhibitor to retard or suppress the formation of the critical nuclei
in the supersaturated fluid (Abdel-­Gaber et al., 2012) and is not ap-
plicable to all modifier antiscalants.
3.2.2 | Electrochemical test
The consequences of the presence of scale on the surface are
more problematic than precipitation in the bulk solution. The elec-
trochemical method is a more recent way to study the buildup
of calcium carbonate layers and the main component of scale on
metal surface. This method allows a faster evaluation of the scal-
ing power of various industrial, natural and chemically or physi-
cally treated waters (Abd-­El-­K halek & Abd-­El-­Nabey, 2013; Garcia
et al., 2001).
KHAMIS et al.
3.2.3 | Chronoamperometry measurements
The chronoamperometry curves for polarized steel electrode in the
CaCl2 brine solution at 40°C in the absence and presence of differ-
ent concentrations of sodium alginate and chitosan were shown in
Figure 7. The figure displayed that the addition of suggested inhibi-
tors to the brine solution increases the limiting value of the current
which indicates that low amount of scales is formed on steel surface. It
can be explained by the bonding strength between cations and active
groups in the two polysaccharides which disorders the normal lattice
structure of the calcium carbonate crystals and thus modify them to
fluffy forms that cannot be attached on metal surface.
3.2.4 | Impedance (EIS) measurements
As no information about the thickness and porosity of the scale layer
is obtained from chronoamperometry curves (Safaira et al., 1999), the
use of impedance technique will improve the understanding of the elec-
trochemical scaling process. Figure 8 shows Nyquist plots for polarized
steel in brine solution in the absence and presence of different concen-
trations of sodium alginate and chitosan, respectively. As seen, different
types of distorted semicircles are observed and their sizes decrease with
increasing the inhibitors concentrations. These observations indicate
that increasing the concentration of antiscalants reduces the insulation
caused by the scaling layer. Figure 9 displays phase angle and Bode dia-
grams which show a considerable decrease of steel electrode modulus
impedance with the addition of chitosan and alginate. The values of
phase angle lower than 90 in Bode theta plots indicate the presence
of nonideal capacitances that verify the inhomogeneities in the system.
Two equivalent circuits (Beaunier et al., 1976; Bousselmi et al.,
1997) were used to fit the experimental data of impedance plots for
the scale formation processes in brine solution containing different
concentrations of sodium alginate, chitosan and HEDP (Figure 10
and Table 1,). The data clarified that increasing inhibitor concen-
tration decreases the charge transfer resistance confirming the
inhibitive effect of these substances towards the scales formation
| 5
F I G U R E 5 Dependence of super
saturation point of calcium carbonate
scale at different concentrations of
chitosan, sodium alginate, and HEDP
process. The percentage of scale inhibition could be determined
from the following Equation (2):
[ ]
(Rct)0 − (Rct)i
% Scale inhibition = × 100 (2)
(Rct)0
where (Rct) 0 and (Rct) i are the charge transfer resistances after
polarizing the steel electrode at −1 V (vs. SCE) in scaling environ-
ment for 3 h in the absence and presence of tested inhibitors, re-
spectively. The data displayed that both polysaccharides sodium
alginate and chitosan are more efficient as CaCO3 scale inhibitors
than HEDP. This efficiency attributed to the presence of func-
tional groups such as NH2+, COO − and OH− which are multiple
adsorption sites and make them easily adorable (Umoren et al.,
2018). Moreover, the size of polymer chains which favors the ad-
sorption on metal surface (Benchikh et al., 2009; Darmokoesoemo
et al., 2018; Eduok et al., 2018; Mobin & Rizvi, 2017; Sun et al.,
2018; Umoren et al., 2018).
High optimum concentration of sodium alginate indicates that
it does not interact through “threshold effect.” It was reported that
doubly charged calcium ions (Ca2+) can bind two different alginate
strands simultaneously (Ibrahim et al., 2014) (Figure 4).
3.3 | Chitosan-­alginate mixture
The overall results displayed that chitosan is more efficient for inhi-
bition of the calcium carbonate scales, whilst it has poor efficiency
for sulfate scales inhibition.
A mixture of chitosan and sodium alginate was tested to im-
prove the efficiency of chitosan as sulfates scales inhibitor.
Table 2 shows calcium sulfate scales inhibition efficiencies at dif-
ferent concentrations of sodium alginate and chitosan. Inhibition
efficiency of the mixture of 50 ppm of sodium alginate and 400
ppm of chitosan compared with HEDP were illustrated in figure 11.
As seen, suggested mixture has a dual effect on carbonate and sul-
fate scale inhibition with good efficiency reached to 88% and 87%,
6 |
F I G U R E 6 Scanning electron microscope (SEM) micrographs of CaCO3crystals after precipitation in absence and presence of the tested
scale inhibitors
compared with HEDP which achieved 65.3 and 87.3, respectively.
Chitosan and alginate have synergetic effect that besides their
functional groups, ionic bonds between chitosan and calcium algi-
nate were formed through NH2− in chitosan and COO − in alginate
(Cahyaningrum et al., 2015). The composition of isoniazid:algi-
nate:chitosan may have additional inhibiting effect on the grow-
ing of crystals. The comparisons of the scale inhibition between
KHAMIS et al.
chitosan-­alginate mixture and some other natural polymeric scale
inhibitors are listed in Table 3. However, tested polysaccharides
have high optimal concentrations; it is believable to produce prom-
ising green antiscalants with regard to eutrophication caused by
phosphorous polymers. Also, it can be considered as alternative
to nongreen technologies especially in food and pharmaceutical
industries and desalination plants.
KHAMIS et al. | 7

F I G U R E 7 Chronoamperometry curves for polarized steel electrode in CaCl2 brine solution in absence and presence of different
concentrations of (a) alginate and (b) chitosan at 40 ○C and –­1 V versus saturated calomel electrode (SCE) for 3 h

EODQN  EODQN 
 SSP   SSP 
SSP  SSP 
 SSP  SSP 

SSP  SSP 
 



] RKPFP

]RKPFP








 

  
 
 
 



         
        

]RKPFP ]RKPFP 

(a) (b)

F I G U R E 8 Impedance spectra of polarized steel in brine solution in absence and presence of different concentrations of (a) alginate and
(b) chitosan after 3 h

F I G U R E 9 Bode plots measured for polarized steel in brine solution in absence and presence of optimum concentrations of alginate and
chitosan after 3 h
8 | KHAMIS et al.

300 ppm chitosan

Blank

7 ppm HEDP 1000 ppm alginate

F I G U R E 1 0 Impedance spectra of polarized steel in brine solution with its fitting curves and equivalent circuits in the absence and
presence of scale inhibitors

TA B L E 1 Computer fit results (± error) of the impedance spectra obtained for the steel electrode that was cathodically polarized in CaCl2
brine solution containing different concentrations of tested antiscalants and HEDP after 3 h

%
Antiscalant Conc., ppm Rs ohm.cm2 Q µF n Rct Ohm.cm2 W ±(error*10 −4) inhibition

Alginate 0 5.55 ± 0.04 103.7 ± 1.5 0.78 1436 ± 13.31 —­ —­

200 5.26 ± 0.038 160 ± 2.24 0.77 1338 ± 13.73 —­ 6.8
500 17.8 ± 0.23 126 ± 0.8 0.70 1330 ± 17.5 —­ 7.4
750 5.146 ± 0.044 125.6 ± 3.02 0.77 546.9 ± 8.9 0.037 ± 1.80 61.9
1000 3.74 ± 0.035 186 ± 5.4 0.75 336.3 ± 7.99 0.03 ± 1.38 76.6
Chitosan 50 4.84 ± 0.035 169 ± 2.46 0.77 1160 ± 13.01 —­ 19.0
100 4.44 ± 0.03 191 ± 4.05 0.81 579.6 ± 10.39 0.049 ± 3.29 59.6
200 7.04 ± 0.05 209 ± 4.97 0.79 521.9 ± 9.681 0.054 ± 3.60 63.6
300 4.7 ± 0.035 286 ± 8.2 0.78 228 ± 4.32 0.064 ± 2.46 84.1
400 4.17 ± 0.033 293 ± 8.75 0.77 189.4 ± 3.48 0.071 ± 2.48 86.8
HEDP 7 3.95 ± 0.036 231 ± 5.17 0.72 497.7 ± 8.45 0.082 ± 7.24 65.3

TA B L E 2 CaSO 4 Inhibition in brine solution in absence and

3.4 | Conclusions presence of different concentrations of suggested mixture

Mixture concentration (sodium alginate: chitosan) ppm % inhibition

Chitosan shows inhibitory activity for calcium carbonate scales
50–­100 60
precipitation whilst alginate has the highest efficiency for sulfate
50–­200 74
scales inhibition. The EIS data clarified that the metallic surface
area occupied by CaCO3 scale particles decreases with increasing 50–­3 00 79

inhibitor concentrations, whilst conductivity measurements cannot 50–­4 00 87

provide any information on the adhesive properties of the scales
on the surfaces. The chitosan-­alginate blend has a good efficiency modification of their crystals. Our findings confirm that the new
with a broad poisoning effect on the crystallization of carbonate blend can be applied as green antiscalant technologies in food, phar-
and sulfate scales, compared to HEDP, which results from significant maceutical industries and desalination plants.
KHAMIS et al. | 9

F I G U R E 1 1 Comparison between
inhibition efficiencies of alginate-­chitosan
mixture and HEDP on CaSO 4 and CaCO3
scales

TA B L E 3 Comparisons of the scale inhibition between chitosan-­alginate mixture and some other natural polymeric scale inhibitors

Inhibition
Scale inhibitor Scale type Test method Dose efficiency (%) Reference

Alginate-­chitosan Mixture CaCO3 and Static test, conductivity, 400:50 ppm 88 and 87
CaSO 4 electrochemical measurements
Chitosan CaSO4 Static test 40 ppm 78 Saleah and Basta
(2008)
Copolymer modified CaCO3 Static test 0.2 g/L 95.6 Guo et al.,
chitosan (2012)
Carboxymethyl CaCO3 Static test and conductivity 50 mg/L 98.5 Zhang et al.,
quaternary ammonium (2015)
oligochitosan
Carboxymethylchitosan CaCO3 Computability and dynamic tube 170 ppm Efficient Macedo et al.,
blocking test (2019)
Poly aspartic acid/chitosan CaCO3 and Static test 8 mg/L 92 and 89 Zeng et al.,
Ca3(PO4)2 (2015)

DATA AVA I L A B I L I T Y S TAT E M E N T
The data that support the findings of this study are available on re-
quest from the corresponding author. The data are not publicly avail-
able due to privacy or ethical restrictions.
ORCID
Dalia E. Abd-­El-­Khalek https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1134-2511
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