Mineral Scale formation: from the atomic to the field scale (MINSC)

Basic data for this project

Description

MINSC is a European FP7 Marie Curie Initial Training Network (ITN) that addresses the current and future challenges of mineral scale formation. The research themes of MINSC relate to the mechanisms of nucleation, growth and inhibition of mineral scale formation through experimental and field projects. Scale formation is a common and costly phenomenon in many industrial processes that deal with water or other fluid handling systems (i.e., wells, heat exchangers, tanks and delivery lines, etc.), where mineral precipitation in pipes, on equipment or as fracture filling has a detrimental effect on process efficiency, cost and lifetime of processing technologies. Scale formation is encountered in a large number of industries including paper-making, chemical manufacturing, cement operations, food processing, as well as non-renewable, (i.e., oil and gas) and renewable (i.e., geothermal) energy production.