Research progress of green scale inhibitors: a mini review

Oilfield scale is one of the major flow assurance issues today in the oil field. The use of scale inhibitor is an effective approach to control scale deposition. Among them, scale inhibitors containing phosphorus have the best achievement. However, many phosphorus-based inhibitors participate in the eutrophication process as nutrients. Due to this environmental problem, green scale inhibitors have been used to prevent the formation of scale. This paper summarized the synthesis of the most widely researched green scale inhibitors in recent years, such as polyaspartic acid (PASP), polyepoxysuccinic acid (PESA), plant extracts and their derivatives, as well as other new inhibitors. Moreover, this paper reviews their mechanism and the progress of application research in recent years.