ENSSLED - Engineering Nanoparticles' Surface for Sustainable Descaling

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Calcium carbonate (CaCO3) scaling of pipeline and flow systems is a long-standing and intractable problem, affecting many criticalindustries. Current descaling approaches involve labour-intensive manual scraping of scales, or the use of specialized chemicals todissolve the scales or to stop them from forming. Unfortunately, these approaches incur cost and time, are not universally applicableto all kinds of flow configurations and have otherwise raised environmental concerns as well. ENSSLED builds instead on analternative approach of using nanoparticles that can nucleate scales on themselves, rather than on the pipe walls. These sacrificialnucleants (SN) after scaling can be removed from the flow stream. But in practice, they often stick to the pipe walls due to theirrandom and disordered shapes (rhombohedral crystals or RC) attained during scaling. Conversely, ENSSLED proposes to investigatethe use of spherically shaped SN, synthesized from a bio-based environmentally friendly material called chitosan. Owing to its aminerichsurface property, chitosan can induce film-wise mineral growth (by a biomimetic process called biomineralization). ENSSLEDapplies these principles to control scaling around the SN in the form of films rather than disordered RC. By retaining the sphericalshape of the SN during scaling, the adhesion of the SN with that of the pipe walls could be minimized, thereby deterring scaleformation on the pipe walls and enabling complete recovery of the SN afterwards. This distinctive biomimetic strategy could offer anindustrially acceptable and sustainable approach toward passive descaling. ENSSLED plans to achieve these goals through amultidisciplinary approach involving SN synthesis, chitosan (biopolymer) processing, scaling analysis, and contact mechanics-basedadhesion measurements (between SN and the pipe walls).