No abstract

No abstract

The high number of leak events that took place in recent years at a 25.4 cm (10") Ø pipeline transporting anhydrous liquid ammonia, located in the Southeast of Mexico, was the main reason to carry out a number of field studies and laboratory tests that helped establish not only the failure causes but also mitigation and control solutions. The performed activities included direct evaluation at failure sites, total repair programs, metallographic studies and pipeline flexibility analyses. The obtained results were useful to conclude that the failures obeyed a cracking mechanism by Stress Corrosion Cracking (SCC) which was caused by the combined effect of different factors: high stress resistance, high hardness of the base metal with a microstructure prone to brittleness and residual strains originated during the pipeline construction. From the operative, logistic and financial standpoints, it is not feasible to release the stress of approximately 22 km of pipeline. Therefore, the only viable solution is to install a new pipeline with suitable fabrication, construction and installation specifications aimed at preventing the SCC phenomenon.

The objective of this study consisted in investigating the possible causes which give rise to the presence of low wall pipe thicknesses on a 16 00 natural gas transport pipeline, even though during the last 12-year period cathodic protection (CP) potentials were kept in the protection range at which external corrosion should not occur. Results from in-line inspection from a 16 00 natural gas transport pipeline showed 46 indications with more than 80% wall thickness lost due to external corrosion in the second segment of the pipeline. Direct inspection at the indication locations, review of the CP system performance, pipeline maintenance programs and studies, allowed to make an integral diagnostic where it was found out that the main cause of external corrosion was an inappropriate coating application since the pipeline construction, this situation has originated the increase of CP shielding effects through time.

The Electrochemical Impedance Technique was used to evaluate the influence of a microbial consortium, isolated from a gas pipeline, upon API XL52 steel corrosion rate. The bacteria growth exhibited two different kinetics behavior, one for the plancktonic and the other for the sessile phase. The sessile bacteria were found to be the main responsible for the corrosion rate increment observed during the experiments and no relationship between the plancktonic microorganisms and the corrosion rate increment was found.The diagrams obtained from the electrochemical impedance measurements, indicated a biofilm formation and that the system changed from activation to diffusion control. Although the system was under diffusion control, an increment on the corrosion rate was detected, and a localized corrosion process was induced. The results were complemented with some surface analysis using Scanning Electron Microscopy.

No abstract