Corrosion behavior for 3Cr steel under oil-water two-phase laminar flow conditions

With the growing of CO₂ corrosion problem in multiphase oil and gas in-field pipelines, carbon steel can no longer meet the continuously growing demand for energy consumption. At the same time, the water content in the gathering pipelines and the complex phase distribution of the oil and water phases make the service environment of the pipeline steel increasingly demanding. Recently, the low Cr-containing steel, which shows an excellent performance-price ratio with a better CO₂ corrosion resistance, is expected to replace the carbon steel used for pipelines. However, the application of 3Cr is limited under the conditions of oil-water flows, especially those with corrosion inhibitor. For example, the absolute value of the uniform corrosion rate is still relatively high in environments of high-carbon dioxide, and using corrosion inhibitor in the application of Cr-containing low-alloy steels is still necessary. Some researchers found that the corrosion inhibitor of imidazoline quaternary ammonium salt can better control the corrosion caused by carbon dioxide in the application of 3Cr steel. Since the corrosion resistance of Cr-containing low-alloy steel depends on the formation of corrosion products, it is highly susceptible to corrosion inhibitors, and research on its compatibility with corrosion inhibitors is still lacking. In this study, the corrosion resistance of 3Cr steel and the effect of corrosion inhibitor on the resistance were evaluated in an oil-water two-phase environment by using a high-temperature and high-pressure autoclave combined with SEM (scanning electron microscope), XRD (X-ray diffraction), confocal Raman spectroscopy, and electrochemical impedance spectroscopy. The results show that the corrosion scales formed on the 3Cr steel consist of two layers, and the inner layer is a Cr-rich layer in this environments, exhibiting good resistance to CO₂ corrosion under the conditions of oil-water flows. However, after adding 100 mg·L⁻¹ corrosion inhibitor of seventeen alkenyl amide ethyl imidazoline quaternary ammonium salt, 3Cr steel has not been effectively protected from corrosion. The analysis of the corrosion product and electrochemical tests revealed that competition exited between alkane molecules, corrosion inhibitor molecules and Cr-rich layers and the alkanes interfered with the ordered arrangement of the corrosion inhibitor and thus affected the corrosion resistance of 3Cr steel.