Diffusion Coatings for Corrosion Resistant Components in Coal Gasification Systems

Abstract

Heat-exchangers, particle filters, turbines, and other components in integrated coal gasification combined cycle system must withstand the highly sulfiding conditions of the high temperature coal gas over an extended period of time. The performance of components degrades significantly with time unless expensive high alloy materials are used. Deposition of a suitable coating on a low cost alloy may improve its resistance to such sulfidation attack and decrease capital and operating costs. The alloys used in the gasifier service include austenitic and ferritic stainless steels, nickel-chromium-iron alloys, and expensive nickel-cobalt alloys. During this reporting period we focused on getting a bench-scale test system to expose alloy coupons to simulated gasifier environment. The test facility was designed to allow about 20 specimen coupons to be exposed simultaneously for an extend period to a simulated coal gas stream at temperatures up to 1000 C. The simulated gas stream contained about 26%H{sub 2}, 39%CO, 17%CO{sub 2}, 1.4% H{sub 2}S and balance steam. We successfully ran a 100+h test with coated and uncoated stainless steel coupons. The tested alloys include SS304, SS316, SS405, SS409, SS410, and IN800. The main finding is that Ti/Ta coating provides excellent protection to SS405 under conditions where uncoated austenitic and ferritic stainless steel alloy coupons are badly corroded. Cr coatings also appear to afford some protection against corrosion.