Progress in the inhibition of metal corrosion and the prospects of its use in the oil and gas industry

• Yu.I. Kuznetsov, A.A. Chirkunov and A.M. Semiletov

A.N. Frumkin Institute of Physical Chemistry and Electrochemistry, Russian Academy of Sciences, Leninsky pr. 31, 119071 Moscow, Russian Federation

Abstract: A brief review of the main scientific areas of research and development of efficient corrosion inhibitors of metals (CIs) and their application methods is given. Temporary protection against atmospheric corrosion of steel pipes and equipment for storage (at least one year) or during transportation is often achieved by passivation using aqueous solutions of non-toxic CIs. They efficiently protect not only steel, but also copper or aluminum alloys; therefore, they successfully replace environmentally hazardous passivating solutions, not only nitrite but also chromate ones. Such solutions are often based on salts of higher carboxylic acids, for example, oleic acid or oleoylsarcosine. Temporary protection includes the use of vapor phase CIs, which, in addition to traditional volatile CIs, include the recently proposed so-called chamber CIs. A relatively new and rapidly developing method of temporary protection of metals is the superhydrophobization of their surface, which provides water contact angles θ above 150°. CIs are used in solutions of strong acids that are injected into the reservoir to increase oil production and in H2S-containing media in the fight against corrosion and hydrogenation. Examples of CI applications in paint systems, and more precisely in the primer layer, where they are introduced being immobilized in micro or macro containers to prevent the adverse effect of a CI on the coating while maintaining a high efficiency of metal corrosion protection, are considered. To prevent the destruction of high-pressure gas pipelines, it is important to slow down not only steel corrosion, but also its stress corrosion cracking (SCC). The properties of CIs that are necessary for their use in polymer coatings to reduce the accident incidence rate due to SCC on gas pipelines are discussed.

Keywords: corrosion, corrosion inhibitors, vapor-phase protection, volatile inhibitors, chamber inhibitors, stress corrosion cracking, passivation of metals

Int. J. Corros. Scale Inhib., 2019, 8, no. 4, 850-881 PDF (1 003 K)
doi: 10.17675/2305-6894-2019-8-4-5

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