Proceedings of the Third International Conference on Metals & Hydrogen P22

A hydrogen permeation approach to detect the HIC in Oil&Gas pipelines

R. Valentini (1)1 , M. Ciccomascolo (2)2 , S. Corsinovi (3)3 , A. Scatena (2)2

  • (1) 1

    DICI – Pisa University

  • (2) 2

    Pontlab srl Pisa

  • (3) 3

    Letomec srl Pisa

Abstract

The most important causes of oil and gas pipeline corrosions are the Hydrogen Induced Cracking and Sulfide Stress Corrosion Cracking. The reason of the pipeline corrosion is attributed to the presence of carbon dioxide, hydrogen sulphide, high temperatures and pressures, free water presence and elevated flow velocity. The main objective for this activity was the need of having a non-invasive user-friendly instrument, able to monitor corrosion in oil and gas pipelines. This instrument does not use carrier gas neither electrochemical solution and should overcome the limits of the currently available devices.

Furthermore, in the present work HIC standard tests, electrochemical hydrogen permeation experiments were used to induce corrosion in X52 steel. Mathematical model based on Mc-Nabb Foster Equations has been developed in order to evaluate the trapping parameters for permeation experiments.

Introduction