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Corrosion tests in gas dynamic conditions

Abstract:

At the entrance of the Muscar plant, in the northern part of Monagas State in Venezuela, a flow loop was constructed in 1993 to perform corrosion tests in real dynamic conditions, using flush mounted disc probes. This loop consists of a 50 m length - 0.8 m OD pipeline whose inlet and outlet pressures are 8273 kPa and 3400 kPa respectively, permitting a gas flow of 200000 m3/D. Due to the content of asphaltene in the gas streams evaluated, these tests also allowed to evaluate the effect of the asphaltene naturally deposited on the corrosion rate of the carbon steel. Simultaneously, RCE (Rotating Cylinder Electrode) probes were inserted within this circuit to pre-expose them to one of the asphaltene - containing gas currents. Then corrosion measurements were performed with a RCE in the laboratory in order to asses the protectiveness of the natural deposited film. Using an asphaltene - crude oil - water mixture, prepared at the laboratory, RCE corrosion tests were also carried out to compare both the naturally and synthetically deposited asphaltene film persistency. Results obtained suggest that the synthetically produced film is more protective than the naturally deposited one up to 5 fold, at the laboratory conditions.