Corrosion and erosion-corrosion behaviors of carbon steel in naphthenic acid media

Abstract

The naphthenic acid corrosion (NAC) and erosion-corrosion (NAEC) behaviors of carbon steel were investigated detailedly in laboratory. The resistance to NAEC of pack-aluminized carbon steel and carbon steel coated by high velocity oxygen-fuel (HVOF) thermal-sprayed AISI 316L stainless steel, was also investigated in both laboratory and an oil refinery. It was found that the control-step of NAC was primarily dependent on the temperature. The NAC rate of carbon steel increased markedly with the increase of the total acid number and temperature, which may be attributed to the enhanced absorption and active reaction of naphthenic acid molecules on the metal surface. Increasing the velocity of flow seriously aggravated NAEC, especially in the high temperature range. The reasons were closely associated with the enhanced mass transfer and the accelerated active reaction as well as the rapid spallation of corrosion products from the metal surface. Both the aluminized carbon steel and the carbon steel covered by HVOF coating showed better resistance against NAEC compared to the carbon steel due to higher microhardness and corrosion resistance of their surface-layers. The HVOF coating is hopeful to be applied for NAEC prevention of the components in oil refineries in view of present experimental results. © 2002 WILEY-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim.