Aspartame as a Green and Effective Corrosion Inhibitor for T95 Carbon Steel in 15 wt.% HCl Solution

Abstract

Oil well acidizing, although a stimulation process, induces the corrosion of metallic equipment and well tubing. There is, at present, a high demand for effective and less toxic high-temperature corrosion inhibitors for the acidizing process due to the failing of the existing inhibitors at high temperatures occasioned by increases in the well depths. In this study, aspartame (ASP), a commercially available natural compound, is examined as a corrosion inhibitor for T95 carbon steel in 15 wt.% HCl solution at 60, 70, 80, and 90 °C using the weight loss, electrochemical impedance spectroscopy (EIS), potentiodynamic polarization (PDP), scanning electron microscope (SEM), energy dispersive spectroscopy (EDX), and optical profilometry (OP) techniques. It was found that ASP possesses a corrosion inhibiting effect at the studied conditions. Inhibition efficiency increased with increases in temperature. With 2000 ppm ASP, inhibition efficiency of 86% was achieved from the weight loss method at 90 °C after 4 h of immersion. Results from the electrochemical techniques are in good agreement with the weight loss results. PDP results reveal that ASP acted as a mixed-type corrosion inhibitor under the investigated conditions. The inhibition ability of ASP is due to adsorption on the steel surface and has been confirmed by the SEM, OP, and EDX results. ASP is a promising active compound for the formulation of acidizing corrosion inhibitors.