With better anti-CO2 corrosion performance than carbon steel, low Cr (1%~5%) alloy steel
has potential for use as pipeline steel to transport oil and gas. To understand the
anti-corrosion mechanism of steels containing Cr, the formation of protective corrosion
products was thoroughly studied. A large number of autoclave experiments simulating the
oilfield environment had been carried out in the temperature range of 40-140° C. Further
more, other factors affecting film formation, such as Cl- concentration (ranging from 10g/L to
50g/L), microstructure and Chromium content were studied.
The surface morphology and the composition of the corrosion product were analyzed using
surface analytical techniques (SEM and EDS) and X-Ray diffraction (XRD), respectively. The
result showed that, above 3%Cr addition to steels could remarkably improve the resistance
to CO2 corrosion due to three-dimensional mixed resistant networks within the corrosion
products. With the increase of either temperature or Cl- concentration, maxium corrosion
rates of 3Cr steel was observed. Otherwise, with the same chemical composition, the
microstructure difference between 3Cr steels resulted in the different anti-CO2 corrosion
performance.
Keywords: CO2 corrosion, low Cr alloy steels, resistance mechanism, factors