Effect of chromium on corrosion behavior of P110 steels in CO2-H2S environment with high pressure and high temperature

Abstract

The novel Cr-containing low alloy steels have exhibited good corrosion resistance in CO2 environment, mainly owing to the formation of Cr-enriched corrosion film. In order to evaluate whether it is applicable to the CO2 and H2S coexistence conditions, the corrosion behavior of low-chromium steels in CO2-H2S environment with high pressure and high temperature was investigated using weight loss measurement and surface characterization. The results showed that P110 steel suffered localized corrosion and both 3Cr-P110 and 5Cr-P110 steels exhibited general corrosion. However, the corrosion rate of 5Cr-P110 was the highest among them. The corrosion process of the steels was simultaneously governed by CO2 and H2S. The outer scales on the three steels mainly consisted of FeS1-x crystals, whereas the inner scales on Cr-containing steels comprised of amorphous FeS1-x, Cr(OH)3 and FeCO3, in contrast with the amorphous FeS1-x and FeCO3 mixture film of P110 steel. The more chromium the steel contains, the more chromium compounds the corrosion products contain. The addition of chromium in steels increases the uniformity of the Cr-enriched corrosion scales, eliminates the localized corrosion, but cannot decrease the general corrosion rates. The formation of FeS1-x may interfere with Cr-enriched corrosion scales and lowering the corrosion performance of 3Cr-P110 and 5Cr-P110 steels.