BESTEC

Sulfide Inhibition and Disposal

Reference Number: 0325790A

Project Period: 01.01.2015 – 31.08.2019

Before the start of the BMWi-funded research project SUBITO, scales occurred in deep geothermal power plants in the Upper Rhine Graben affecting continuous plant operation and resulting in high follow-up costs. Scales in the heat exchangers for example reduced the efficiency of heat transfer, which resulted in a loss of profit and made annual cleaning of the heat exchangers necessary.

The selection of different inhibitors, combined with extensive laboratory testing and the application of products with accompanying monitoring at two geothermal energy plants in the Upper Rhine Graben, has enabled the development of a successful strategy to avoid scaling within the framework of this research project. The combined application of two different product groups, inhibitors for scale prevention and corrosion inhibitors, successfully reduced the total amount of scales. Thus, the efficiency and the service lifetime of the heat exchangers have been significantly increased and, in addition, follow-up costs such as disposal costs for the scales have been significantly reduced. A total of four partners were responsible for the research project SUBITO: BESTEC GmbH, BWG GmbH, VKTA and ZSM GmbH & Co KG. The companies and institutes GEIE EMC, AquaTitan GmbH, KIT-INE and GTN GmbH acted as subcontractors for the project partners.