Environmentally friendly green inhibitors used for corrosion inhibition of oil pipeline

• A.M. Salim¹, Kh.M. Abed², N.M. Dawood² and Z. Al-Khafaji^3,4

¹ Polytechnic College, Al-Furat Al-Awsat Technical University, 54003 Kufa, Najaf, Iraq
² College of Materials Engineering, University of Babylon, 51001 Hillah, Babylon, Iraq
³ Department of Civil Engineering, Faculty of Engineering and Built Environment, Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia, 43600 UKM Bangi, Selangor, Malaysia
⁴ Imam Ja’afar Al-Sadiq University, Al-Qahira District, 10011 Baghdad, Iraq

Abstract: Corrosion in oil and gas pipelines remains an ongoing issue, causing significant economic losses, operational disruptions, and environmental hazards. Traditional mitigation methods, such as cathodic protection, alloying, and synthetic chemical inhibitors, are typically associated with high cost, operational complexity, and environmental concern. Recently, environmentally friendly green inhibitors of natural origin have emerged as viable substitutes owing to their biodegradability, low toxicity, and effective adsorption behavior. This review provides a mechanistic overview of the physicochemical properties, adsorption behavior, and inhibition mechanisms of green corrosion inhibitors for ferrous metals. Special attention is paid to their performance in acidic environments, which are among the most widely used in laboratory tests and industrial practices such as acidizing and cleaning operations. According to the reviewed studies, green inhibitors can achieve inhibition efficiencies of over 90% by forming protective films via adsorption, which capture heteroatoms (O, N, S), π-electrons, and/or polar functional groups (plant extracts; essential oils; biopolymers; derivatives from agro-waste). Nonetheless, the results mainly come from acidic media, and thus their direct relevance to in-situ conditions governed by CO₂ (sweet corrosion) and H₂S (sour corrosion) must be taken with caution. Thus, this review indicates that further investigations should be conducted in realistic pipeline systems to validate the long-term approaches for improving the stability and long-term performance of green inhibitors for oil and gas applications.

Keywords: corrosion, green inhibitors, oil pipeline

Int. J. Corros. Scale Inhib., 2026, 15, no. 3, 27-57
doi: 10.17675/2305-6894-2026-15-3-2

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