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Factors controlling the kinetics of crystallization: supersaturation evolution in a porous medium. Application to barite crystallization

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 May 2009

Manuel Prieto ,
Andrew Putnis  and
Lurdes Fernandez-Diaz
Manuel Prieto
Affiliation:
Departamento de Cristalografia y Mineralogia, Universidad Complutense de Madrid, 28040, Madrid, Spain
Andrew Putnis
Affiliation:
Department of Earth Sciences, University of Cambridge, Cambridge CB2 3EQ, England
Lurdes Fernandez-Diaz
Affiliation:
Departamento de Cristalografia y Mineralogia, Universidad Complutense de Madrid, 28040, Madrid, Spain
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Abstract

The nucleation of barite has been studied in a system involving the doublediffusion of Ba2+ and SO42- in an Na-rich aqueoussolution, through a porous medium. The evolution of the concentration profiles in the medium, which is a column of porous silica gel, has been determined as a function of time by direct chemical analysis of the diffusion-controlled mass transfer. By measuring the pH evolution, a Debye–Huckel treatment of ionic complexing has enabled the supersaturation evolution to be determined. The location of barite precipitation in the column is controlled both by the need to exceed a threshold supersaturation, as well as achieve an ‘equality range’ in which [Ba2+]/[SO42−] is close to unity. The value of the threshold supersaturation is a kinetic parameter and depends on the rate at which supersaturation increases. The experimental system described here has wide application to the study of crystallization phenomena in rocks. Experiments on the effect of additives designed to inhibit nucleation of barite in North Sea oil wells are used to quantify the resultant increase in supersaturation threshold.

Type
Articles
Information
Geological Magazine , Volume 127 , Issue 6 , November 1990 , pp. 485 - 495
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1990

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