Preliminary Study of Scaling Prevention In Geothermal Power Plants Using Adsorbent Hydrogel Nipaam-Co-Chitosan

One of the most common problems in the operation of the geothermal power plant is silica scaling. Geothermal brines usually contain a lot of dissolved minerals such as Na, K, Si, Ca, Mg, Al, Fe, Cl, S, O, C, B, Li, As, Cu, Zn, Ag, Au, and other elements in ionic and molecular forms. Generally, in high-temperature geothermal resources, where the operating temperature is ≥ 200 °C, the scaling is more likely to be occurred due to the steam-phase separation process in flash-steam geothermal power plants. Therefore, ions removal in geothermal wastewater or brines is crucial to reduce the potential of scaling in the reinjection well facilities. The study aims to investigate the efficiency rate of ions removal in geothermal wastewater by using adsorbent hydrogel NIPAAM-co-Chitosan. The water samples from the Dieng geothermal power plant in Indonesia were used for the experiment. The experiment is comprised of the following tasks: 1) water samples from several locations, such as production wells, separators, discharge waters, cooling tanks, hot springs and rivers; 2) the preparation and synthesize materials of adsorbent hydrogel; 3) the experiment of geothermal water treatment using adsorbent ionic hydrogels, two (10, 50°C) different temperatures adsorption used; 4) the physical-chemical analysis from selected water samples carried out at Laboratory of AGH University of Science and Technology.