Atmospheric corrosion due to amine emissions from carbon capture plants

Terje Grøntoft

doi:10.1016/j.ijggc.2021.103355

Abstract

The atmospheric corrosion due to pure amines emitted from carbon capture plants was investigated. Amine exposure was found to initially inhibit the corrosion of steel, by its film formation and alkalinity, but reduce corrosion product layers and lead to freezing point depression, which could in turn increase the corrosion. Very high amine doses were observed to dissolve the metal without the establishing of a corrosion layer. These effects seem much more pronounced on copper than on steel. Climate and air quality variations affect the steel corrosion much more than the expected maximum amine deposition from carbon capture plant emissions.

Highlights

There is a strong interest in carbon capture and storage (CCS) to mitigate climate change
The dissolving effect was observed to increase with increasing amine dose and pH until at the highest applied dose a net dissolving effect was observed on both the corrosion layer and metal substrate, which reduced the total weight of both steel, and of copper samples exposed in an SO2 containing atmo sphere
The amines may have inhibited the corrosion, but at higher doses DEA clearly increased the dissolution of the corrosion products and the copper substrate, and the off running of a copper containing solution

Summary

Introduction

There is a strong interest in carbon capture and storage (CCS) to mitigate climate change. This is seen as a necessary technology to reduce the CO2 emissions to the atmosphere from the burning of hydrocarbons (Shao and Stangeland, 2009). Some amount of the amines and of their degradation products are known to escape to the atmosphere during this process. It is a demand from environmental authorities to document the risks to health and the environment from industrial emissions. The aim of the investigations described in this paper was to supply such documentation about possible corrosion effects on infrastructure of released amines from CCS plants

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Discussion

Conclusion