Contribution a l'étude des procèdes électrochimiques d'adoucissement des eaux dures

Abstract

Treating hard water has been interest from several works in order to reduce the adverse consequences of tartar. Hard water deposits form compact and adherent to the walls of pipes and industrial or domestic installations (GHIZELLAOUI, 2006). Our study focuses on softening hard water Hamma having a hardness of 59°F and Negrine with a hardness of 56°F in the presence of KH2PO4, polyphosphates and HEDP. The evaluation and the inhibition of scaling of hard waters of Hamma and Negrine were carried out by using four methods: - The chemical method for evaluating the effective concentration of inhibitor to reduce the hardness of waters of Hamma and Negrine at temperature sources 30°C while maintaining a residual calcium concentration of 1 00 mg/L. - The method of rapid precipitation controlled to track the phenomenon of germination growth during the formation of the deposit of calcium carbonate. - The electrochemical method of accelerated scaling to assess the scaling power of raw waters of Hamma and Negrine by electrochemical way and in the presence of chemical inhibitors (KH2PO4, polyphosphates and HEDP ); - electrochemical method for measuring impedances of precipitated deposits metal deposit calcium carbonate - electrolyte interface enables an overall assessment by means of the highfrequency resistance , adhesion and the importance of filing carbonate calcium ( Khalil et al.1993). -The effect of inhibitors on the morphology and adhesion of the deposit of calcium carbonate was observed by the scanning electron microscope SEM and RX. The application of chemical treatment of the waters of Hamma and Negrine at temperature of 30°C showed that partial inhibition of hardness requires addition of 2 mg/L of KH2PO4 for Hamma and 3 mg/L for Negrine. By against, the use of the polyphosphates inhibits scaling at a concentration of 10 mg/L for Hamma water and 5 mg/L for Negrine water. The HEDP effect is at a concentration of 1 00 mg/L for Hamma and 50 mg/L for Negrine. These values are reduced using the method of rapid controlled precipitation for each of the three inhibitors (0.1 mg/L KH2PO4, 0.01 mg/L Polyphosphates or 0.01 mg/L HEDP) for water of Hamma, and (0.5 mg/L KH2PO4, 1 mg/L Polyphosphates or 0.01 mg/L HEDP ) for water of Negrine. The chronoamperometric study shows that the scaling time increases with the addition of (0.1 mg/L KH2PO4, 0.04 mg/L Polyphosphates or 0.005 mg/L HEDP ) for Hamma water and (0.5 mg/L KH2PO4, 0.25 mg/L Polyphosphtes or 10-5 mg/L HEDP) for Negrine water. The impedance measurement obtained from the raw waters of Hamma and Negrine compared to treated waters shows a decrease in the amount of calcium carbonate scale as well as its adhesion by measuring high frequency resistors deposits from addition of (0.01 mg/L KH2PO4, 0.01 mg/L Polyphosphates or 0.005 mg/L HEDP) for Hamma also (0.5 mg/L KH2PO4, 0.05 mg/L Polyphosphates or 0.0075 mg/L HEDP) for Negrine.