Lee JR  Yoon HK  Bae JH  Shin HD

Environmental-friendly cleaning agents Nonionic surfactant Distribution reservoir scale Organic acid Solvency of metal oxide

In this study, an environmental-friendly cleaning agent utilizing organic acids and various additives has been developed and applied to the field for removal of scale deposited on the cleaning beds or distribution reservoirs of the waterworks. As an analytical result of scale on the cleaning beds, we found that it consists of mainly metallic oxides such as SiO2, Al2O3, Fe2O3, and MnO. Malic acid, malonic acid, and citric acid showed relatively better solvency on Al2O3, Fe2O3, and MnO except SiO2 among various organic acids. Mixed organic acid solutions of malic acid, malonic acid, and citric acid were prepared with certain weight ratios and their solvencies on mixed metal oxides of Al2O3, Fe2O3, and MnO were investigated. The experimental results showed that an 10% mixed organic acid solution prepared with weight ratio of malic acid : malonic acid : citric acid = 6 : 2 : 2 were found to have best scale solvency power of about 29%. The formulated cleaning agents with a small amount of nonionic surfactant showed much better solvency on mixed oxides than mixed organic solution alone. Especially, the formulated cleaning agent with 0.2 wt% LA-7 surfactant appeared to have best scale removal efficiency of about 35%. However, the formulated cleaning agent with disinfectants such as NaClO, H2O2 and Ca(ClO)2 showed poor solvency on mixed oxides. It is inferred that surfactants are able to improve scale removal efficiency due to their capability of emulsification, and disinfectants cause to degrade scale solvency in water because of their oxidation. Based on these basic experimental results, formulated cleaning agents have been prepared with mixed organic acid solution, nonionic surfactants, and disinfectants and successfully applied to removal of scales on the cleaning beds and distribution reservoir at city D waterworks.