Study of the Effect of Inhibitor on Erosion-Corrosion in CO2-Saturated Condition With Sand

Abstract

Summary CO2 corrosion inhibitors are widely adopted in production and processing facilities in the oil and gas industry. The challenge is that under multiphase flow (liquid/sand) and high shear-stress conditions, successful application of inhibitors can be difficult. Under such severe erosion-corrosion conditions, the total material damage is identified as being associated with electrochemical corrosion, solid particle erosion, and synergistic effects between the two. To investigate the possibility of using corrosion inhibitors to reduce erosion-corrosion, this study has characterized the corrosion phenomena occurring at the carbon steel-electrolyte interface under erosion-corrosion conditions. AC impedance was used to provide mechanistic information of corrosion with absence and presence of a commercial corrosion inhibitor in erosion-corrosion conditions in a CO2-saturated brine. Experiments were conducted using a rotating cylinder electrode cell containing sand at different temperatures, rotational speeds and with various inhibitor concentrations. Four commercial inhibitors have been investigated. In this work, the potential for applying corrosion inhibitors for the reduction of material loss in erosion–corrosion is assessed and the role of the inhibitor in reducing corrosion, erosion, and interactive mass-loss mechanisms is discussed.