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Causes & Effects of Corrosion in Refineries
1. Introduction
The topic which I have chosen is the causes and effects of corrosion in refineries,
which often impact negatively on the safety and profits of refineries. This topic is
linked to my future university courses which is chemical engineering. Also, I chose it
because it might increase my knowledge about oil refineries, where I hope to work.
In addition, this project divided into three main parts. The first part is about the
causes of corrosion, the second part focus on the effects such as financial and
injuries events, and the final part suggest the best solutions strategies to solve the
problems of corrosion as selection of materials.
2. Main body
2.1 Over view:
In 2005, a huge blast happened in Anacortes, and the victims were 15 dead and 180
injured, while one of the main causes of the blast was corrosion (Cleve, 2015). Due
to this event this project has been written because it may help operators and
refineries by giving them more information about the negative influences of
corrosion and the methods to avoid these influences, which might create hazardous
accidents, as mentioned above . Corrosion can be defined as the progressive
deterioration of metals or their mechanical particulars because of electrochemical
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reaction to a metal or alloy, or direct chemical attack at high or low temperature
(Fontana, 1986). In addition, the word corrosion is not new, but in the past, people
called it rust. Furthermore, there are many philosophers and scientists who wrote
about corrosion in the 17th century such as Austin who wrote a book in 1788 which
named ''noticed that neutral water becomes alkaline when it acts on
iron''(ARELLANO, 2013). Corrosion has been divided into two types. The first type is
wet corrosion which happens when a liquid is existent around a metal surface, for
example the corrosion of steel by water (Fontana, 1986). The second type is dry
corrosion, which usually occurs in a dry atmosphere or a dew point (Fontana, 1986).
Furthermore the corrosion often related with high temperature, for instance, an
attack on steel by furnace gases, which might lead to corrosion on the steel.
(Fontana, 1986)
2.2 Main ideas
The improvement of corrosion on industrial equipment depend on the environment,
material properties and temperature. What is more, there are three main causes of
corrosion on industrial equipment which depend on environment (Neufeld, 1975).
The first cause is the reaction between two or more electrochemical surface, which
is due to changing metals from a metallic state into a non-metallic state, for
instance, the reaction between steel and zinc metal (Neufeld, 1975). The second
cause is the interaction between a metal surface and the atmosphere, for example, a
corrosion occurs on the piping in the industrial’s boilers (Neufeld, 1975). The third
cause is the interaction between soil and metal surface, for instance the corrosion
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which happens on the bottom of tanks and underground pipes (Neufeld, 1975) .
Thus, these interactions appear to be the basic causes of corrosion on industrial
equipment.
As shown figure 1, corrosion depends on the situation of environment, for instance,
if a metal surface interacts with cold water the corrosion increases slightly, whilst if
the cold water be substituted with hot water, the corrosion increases faster
(Fontana, 1986). Therefore, some environment's situation can be a catalyst of
corrosion's reactions.
On the other hand, corrosion often causes many financial losses. One of the most
expensive cost is manufacturers, which often impacts on refineries budget (Arellano,
2013). For instance, in 1995 more than $300 billion was spent by the United States of
America to avoid corrosion in their factories (Fontana, 1986). According to Fontana
(1986) it has been estimated that 5% of annual income in every country is spent to
avoid corrosion on industrial equipment. That is because the increasing of
maintenance and product pollution, to illustrate that, industrial equipment should
be maintained to avoid corrosion, otherwise, if the corrosion increases in the
equipment's metal, it should be replaced to avoid any inspected incidents, and that
leads to many financial losses. On the other hand, the components of corrosion
might mix with the refineries' products, which may causes product contamination
(Arellano, 2013). Finally, these effects often impacts negatively on industrial budget.
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As a result of corrosion on the piping or equipment that may leads to leakage or
explosion in the system, which might results injuries or death cases. On 18th of
February 2015 in a refinery in Torrance, California, an enormous explosion occurred
during a leak of flammable gas which happen because of corrosion, and that led to
some injuries (Allen, 2015). According to Arellano, 2013, depending on reports of
most of EU and OECD - (Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development)-
countries, most events in the oil refineries such as toxic releases, fires and explosions
happen because of leakage, (figure 2). A leak consists of a small gap, then, it
becomes wider and that may lead to hazardous events, as mentioned above.
However, the world’s economy could be totally different if corrosion be prevented
(Copper Development Association, 1981). Because solving corrosion effects is a
massive issue which is real difficult to prevent, chemical scientists suggested some
solutions to avoid it and decrease it's negative impact as much they can. One of the
most important solution they focussed on is selection of materials. As shown figure
3, each material has different resistance of corrosion, for example the reaction
between carbon steel and acetone fluid creates a very low resistance of corrosion,
and that gives a huger chance for corrosion to increase (Copper Development
Association, 1981). On the other hand, the reaction between cast iron and acetic
acid might product a high resistance of corrosion, as a result it could be the case that
corrosion will not increase readily, and this could prevent corrosion for a longer
period (Copper Development Association, 1981) . Therefore, section of high
resistance material can solve several problems of corrosion effects.
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2.3 Closing points
Corrosion has many effects and they can be solved by more than one method. At the
final, I would like the readers and audience to think about solutions and how
refineries can solve corrosion issues by the lowest cost to preserve the government
and refineries budget.
3.Conculotion
To summarise, the corrosion can create many negative effects on refineries. The
corrosion predominantly depend on environment Interactions which has been
classified to three causes, aqueous solution, atmospheric and soil reaction. On the
other hand, corrosion often leads to many effects, such as financial losses, which
happen because of the increasing of maintenance and product pollution. Moreover,
corrosion can create accidents in refineries, and that might be dangerous on
refineries' operators. Finally, refineries should take a serious step to avoid corrosion
effects. And to do that they have to select specific materials which have high
resistance of corrosion. The strength point in this assignment is the several sources
which mentioned the effects of corrosion in refineries. On the other hand the
weakness of the project is the difficulty of finding labs to do experiments. However,
finding new solutions of corrosion in refineries will be the most important point in
my future study, because it can prevent operators lives.
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Appendix
4. Figures
Figure 1 (Fontana, 1986)
More Corrosive Less Corrosive
Moist air Dry air
Hot water Cold water
Polluted air Clean air
Acids Bases (alkalis)
Salt water (Sea) Freshwater (river)
Inorganic materials Organics
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Figure 2 (Arellano, 2013)
Figure 3 (Copper Development Association, 1981)
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5. Reference list:
Allen, K. (2015, February 18). Fire At Exxon LA-Area Refinery, Gas Prices Spike. CNBC.
Retrieved from http://www.cnbc.com/2015/02/18/residents-report-explosion-at-
exxon-refinery-in-southern-california.html
ARELLANO, A. (2013). Corrosion‐Related Accidents in Petroleum Refineries.
Retrieved from https://minerva.jrc.ec.europa.eu/EN/content/51beddd7-1149-4230-
928d-a225bf39471a/tr01corrosionrefineriespdf
Cleve, B. (2009). At My Old Refinery. Retrieved August 1, 2015, from
http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2015/feb/12/value-life-oil-refinery-
worker-pie-strike
Copper Development Association. (1981). Aluminium Bronze Alloys Corrosion
Resistance Guide. Retrieved August 1, 2015, from
http://www.copperalliance.org.uk/docs/librariesprovider5/resources/pub-80-
aluminium-bronze-corrosion-resistance-pdf.pdf
Fontana, M . (1986). Corrosion engineering. New York : McGraw-Hill
Neufeld, P. (1975). Elementary Aspects of Corrosion. UK: University College of
Swansea
