Antiscalants, Descalants and Dispersants
BASF offer antiscalants, descalants and dispersants to suit several applications within the mining industry. BASF’s range in marketed under the Solutrix™ tradename and products have been designed to reduce maintenance costs and energy consumption whilst increasing process efficiencies.
BASF Solutrix™ antiscalants work by affecting the process of nucleation (also called threshold inhibition), which prevents scale crystals from forming and growing. In some applications the scaling potential is very high, and some scale crystals do form. Our antiscalants then prevent these crystals from developing further by attaching to the crystal surface and blocking access for further growth. This significantly slows scale formation and makes any scale which does form very brittle and easily removed.
Our antiscalants also disperse any scale crystals forming in the bulk of the solution as well as preventing any suspended solids from settling in areas with low flow, allowing them to be easily flushed out of the system.
The same chemistry used at higher doses acts as a dispersant to reduce the viscosity of slurries to maintain throughput, increase the efficiency of mixing and allow higher concentrations of slurry to be pumped at lower energy costs.
BASF also offers Solutrix™ E, a descalant, which is principally used for the removal of mineral scales which may have been deposited on the internal surfaces of pipes, heat exchangers and other processing equipment.
Antiscalants and Rheology Modifiers
Solutrix™ 100 is a high efficiency polycarboxylate antiscalant and highly efficient clay dispersant. Solutrix™ 100 is an effective inhibitor for calcite and gypsum scale, in systems with neutral to alkaline pH. Solutrix™ 100 is a concentrated product for maximum cost effectiveness in use, storage and transport.
Solutrix™ 11 is a synergistic blend of a high efficiency polycarboxylate and a high efficiency polyphosphonate compound. Solutrix™ 11 is a proven performer in high pH, high hardness processes with high calcite scaling potentials, particularly where high levels of suspended solids are present. Solutrix™ 11 is a concentrated product for maximum cost effectiveness in use, storage, and transport. Solutrix™ 11 is used in copper flotation plants, coal washeries, gold heap leaching, gold processing and a wide variety of other applications.
Solutrix™ 7 is chemically equivalent to Solutrix™ 11 but sold at a lower active content. This suits customers with existing dosing systems or low dose requirements where the existing equipment cannot run slowly enough to avoid overdosing a high activity product.
Solutrix™ D is a polycarboxylate antiscalant and viscosity modifier. It is a concentrated product for maximum cost effectiveness in use, storage and transport. Its molecular weight lends it to systems where the product requires high thermal stability or where slurry characteristics need to be stable for longer periods of time.
Solutrix™ L 200 is a very low molecular weight, high efficiency polycarboxylate antiscalant. It is an efficient antiscalant for calcite in mineral processing systems. Solutrix™ L 200 is a concentrated product for maximum cost effectiveness in use, storage and transport. Solutrix™ L 200 is widely used in South America.
BASF Descalant Range
Solutrix™ E is a high activity solution of methane sulfonic acid (MSA) which is used for acidic cleaning solutions. Solutrix™ E is an organic acid but has similar acid strength to strong mineral acids such as hydrochloric and sulfuric acid. It is manufactured by a proprietary BASF process without chlorine and consequently it has far lower corrosivity towards metals than mineral acids while delivering more acidic protons into solution than organic acids. In acid cleaning operations it reacts faster with less damage to equipment than traditional options.
Solutrix™ E is safer to use both for operators and equipment than most conventional acids. It is infinitely miscible in water so high strength solutions can be prepared and there are no powders for operators to weigh out and dissolve. It can be dosed directly into tanks or pipes eliminating operator handling of the product.
It has low toxicity, is biodegradable, has low chemical oxygen demand and produces no dangerous vapors or fumes. Solutrix™ E can be used for pipeline and descaling, for removing scale and deposits from media filters, and for cleaning pressure filters and centrifuges.
Solutrix™ E is essentially chemically inert, so it can be blended with a wide variety of formulation ingredients including oxidizing agents such as hydrogen peroxide, surfactants, metal sequestrants, corrosion inhibitors and so on to tailor efficient cleaning solutions for many applications. It can also be blended with other acids for specific applications, such as with phosphoric acid for rapid and highly efficient rust removal and surface passivation.
BASF Dispersant Range
Solutrix™ A40 is an ammonium polyacrylate polymer with very low metal content, making it ideal for use as a dispersant in the manufacture of ceramic electronic components (e.g. resistors and insulators). During firing ammonium cations are cooked off (as ammonia) leaving the resulting component free of undesirable metals. Sodium polyacrylates leave the sodium ions behind after firing, contaminating these components and changing their resistivity. Solutrix™ A40 eliminates this issue by replacing the sodium ions with ammonium ions in the formulation. Solutrix™ A40 is a concentrated product that reduces the viscosity of slurries (maximizing the slurry solids content) to maintain throughput, increasing mixing efficiency and optimizing energy costs.
