Corrosion and fouling is encountered in various locations and environments in operating
petrochemical plants despite the fact that process streams are primarily composed of
hydrocarbons. An electrochemical high temperature and high pressure facility is used to study
the corrosion and fouling behaviour of low-alloy, stainless and exotic alloy steels in several
petrochemical environments. Electrochemical techniques including cyclic voltammetry, open
circuit potential and electrochemical impedance spectroscopy are used to study the effect of
temperature, water concentration, chromium and nickel concentration on the initiation of
corrosion/fouling on various alloyed steels in several petrochemical solutions (i.e. naphtha, raw
pyrolysis gasoline and quench tower bottoms).
Experiments are conducted using a quasi-reference Ag metal electrode. Previous
results on carbon and low alloy steels suggest that corrosion rates vary with conductivity,
which are controlled, by varying the concentration of water. Scanning electron microscopy and
energy dispersive X-ray analysis (SEM/EDX) is used to look at the nature of the deposit
formed after applying the aforementioned electrochemical techniques.
Keywords: open circuit potential, fouling, cyclic voltammetry, stainless steel, naphtha,
quench tower bottoms, raw pyrolysis gasoline