EFC Working Party 24: CO₂-Corrosion in Industrial-Applications

Mission

With the increase of awareness related to Carbon Capture (Utilization) and Storage (CCS) technology and the worldwide introduction of this technique to many fields in order to minimize carbon dioxide emission to the atmosphere as well as the use of CO₂-streams within other industrial applications, the safety of this technology is a widely discussed problem.

Regarding corrosion, CO₂ and its precipitations can interact with the materials used for compression/transportation/injection of emission gasses from combustion processes. Therefore, selection of appropriate material and understanding the mechanisms are key factors in order to increase the safety and reliability of the CCS technology as a basis of its realizability.

This working party is devoted to the evaluation of the behavior of different materials in certain CO₂-media considering process related circumstances and technical possibilities in Europe and worldwide. Open questions are addressed; possible solutions are elaborated and shown.

The working party aims at using the European network of experts to collect and merge the present understanding in the field of CO₂-related corrosion, identify the needs for further research, both in basics and application, evaluate existing testing methods, promote new investigation methods, and foster normative work on an international basis. 

The working party addresses the following general topics:

Research

• Identification of the most important factors influencing the corrosion system as the basis of research and development.
• Improvement of the understanding of the reaction mechanisms and interactions of precipitations with the different materials used in gaseous, dissolved, dense phase and supercritical CO₂, in cooperation with other EFC Working Parties, especially WP 13 and appropriate TEGs of NACE International.

Investigation and Testing

• Evaluation and optimization of existing and new methods for investigation and testing of the corrosion resistance of materials.
• Emphasis is put on the evaluation and further development of short-term testing for life time prediction.

Knowledge transfer

• Review, systematization, equalization and dissemination of the current knowledge of corrosion resistance and application limits of the respective materials.
• Organization of workshops, seminars, and symposia with respect to basic understanding and industrial application. This shall include mechanism analysis and service strategies.
• Active contribution to current standardization activities
  (e.g. ISO TC 265).

This working party deals with following items of major interest:

• Test methods
• CO₂-effect concerning scaling, general and pitting corrosion
• Interactions with typical precipitations like SO_x, NO_x, H₂S and water
• Qualification of carbon and stainless steels
• Evaluation of appropriate protection measures
• Special considerations within the different parts of an installation (separation, compression, transport and injection)
• Problems of composition variations in practice

Previous activities

Last meetings

At EUROCORR 2019, Seville, Spain, there were around 80 attendees during the whole one-day workshop. Within this workshop case studies from industry, practice-related and academic research work have shown the current state of knowledge and the need of further research and information exchange. The minutes of the business meeting (10 Sept 2019, Seville, Spain) can be found here.