Publications

Abstract not provided.

Two mitigation strategies including the use of corrosion resistant alloys (CRA) for the tubing and the application of a corrosion inhibitor and anti-fouling package in the water were used in the laboratory simulation of corrosion in large oil coolers at US Strategic Petroleum Reserve. A closed-loop, recirculating system was designed and constructed. The corrosion sensors were monitored over time using a commercially available linear polarization resistance (LPR) meter. The ERW steel exhibited significant localized attack along the entire weld root, in addition to pitting along the rest of the surface, as observed on the seamless tubing.

The goal of this study was to first establish the fitness for service of the carbon steel based oil coolers presently located at the Bryan Mound and West Hackberry sites, and second, to compare quantitatively the performance of two proposed corrosion mitigation strategies. To address these goals, a series of flow loops were constructed to simulate the conditions present within the oil coolers allowing the performance of each corrosion mitigation strategy, as well as the baseline performance of the existing systems, to be assessed. As prior experimentation had indicated that the corrosion and fouling was relatively uniform within the oil coolers, the hot and cold side of the system were simulated, representing the extremes of temperature observed within a typical oil cooler. Upon completion of the experiment, the depth of localized attack observed on carbon steel was such that perforation of the tube walls would likely result within a 180 day drawdown procedure at West Hackberry. Furthermore, considering the average rate of wall recession (from LPR measurements), combined with the extensive localized attack (pitting) which occurred in both environments, the tubing wall thickness remaining after 180 days would be less than that required to contain the operating pressures of the oil coolers for both sites. Finally, the inhibitor package, while it did reduce the measured corrosion rate in the case of the West Hackberry solutions, did not provide a sufficient reduction in the observed attack to justify its use.