Microencapsulated scale inhibitors coupled with electrochemical water softening for synergistically inhibiting CaCO3 deposition

In the work, the synergistic scale inhibition performance of microencapsulated scale inhibitor (PBTCA@MF) with electrochemical water softening technique was investigated. The results showed that microcapsules prevented PBTCA from chelating calcium ions around the cathode of electrochemical water softening technique, which mitigated the effect of conventional scale inhibitors on the electrochemical water softening performance. When the concentration of PBTCA@MF was 20 mg·L−1, the precipitation rate during electrochemical water softening was 14.56 g/m2·h. After the electrochemical water softening process, the microcapsules were able to release a sustained certain amount of PBTCA at high temperature environment. PBTCA@MF exhibited remarkable scale inhibition performance, achieving inhibition efficiency of 90.04 %, which was 14.21 % higher than that without electrolysis. After several cycles, the synergistic water softening performance remained relatively excellent. The synergistic interaction of electrolysis and microencapsulated scale inhibitor facilitated water softening and inhibited scaling at high temperature.