Corrosion damage was observed in carbon steel heat exchangers tubes only after nine months of service. These exchangers cool down a recycle stream from the reactor, thus removing the heat in the reactor evolved due to dimerization reaction of Ethylene to Butene. The shell side medium is cooling water and the tube side is butane. Metallurgical structure and chemical composition of the heat exchanger pipe’s metal matrix were inspected by metallographic microscope and X-Ray Fluorescence Spectrometry (XRF) and carbon/sulfur (C/S) analyzer. Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM) coupled with Energy Dispersive Spectroscopy (EDS) was used to study the damage morphology and the chemical compositions of the corrosion products. Biological analyses of cooling water were performed, as well. The analytical results suggest the main corrosion mechanism for the observed attack is microbiologically influenced corrosion (MIC).

Subject
Scanning electron microscopy, External surfaces, Materials, Metal surfaces, Tubes, Biofilms, Heat exchangers, Bacteria, Deposit corrosion, Cooling water, Microorganisms, Microbiologically influenced corrosion, Samples
Keywords:
corrosion, heat exchanger, cooling water, MIC
© 2014 Association for Materials Protection and Performance (AMPP). All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means (electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise) without the prior written permission of AMPP. Positions and opinions advanced in this work are those of the author(s) and not necessarily those of AMPP. Responsibility for the content of the work lies solely with the author(s).
2014
Association for Materials Protection and Performance (AMPP)
You do not currently have access to this content.