Quantifying the Acetate-Enhanced Corrosion of Carbon Steel in Oilfield Brines

Pit growth and stifling on carbon steel in CO2-containing media in the presence of HAc

“…The interpretation of this potential difference can be related to the fact that the corrosion potential of X65 steel monotonically decreases with decreasing HAc concentration as reported in the literature [6,10,11,18,19]. This dependence of the corrosion potential on the HAc concentration is confirmed in Fig.…”

“…This is consistent with results from other works, where the concentration of the undissociated form of the weak acid, rather than pH, was shown to be a critical factor in CO 2 corrosion of X65 steel in the presence of HAc. Indeed, the undissociated HAc would act as the main reactant in the cathodic process rather than the reduction of proton or carbonic acid [10,11].…”

“…Results issued from field observations and laboratory studies have shown that HAc has an additional contribution to the overall CO 2 corrosion rate [6,8,9]. There seems a consensus that HAc entails a significant enhancement of the cathodic reaction due to proton reduction either after acid dissociation or directly from the undissociated acid or the combination of both [10,11]. The presence of HAc has also been observed to cause a shift of the anodic polarization branch towards higher potentials, i.e.…”

CO2 corrosion of carbon steel in the presence of acetic acid at higher temperatures

“…Several researchers have reported an increase in the rate of CO 2 corrosion of carbon steel in the presence of acetic acid [9][10][11][12][13][14][15][16][17] and variable trends with respect to corrosion rate versus time and concentration of acetic acid were reported. These have been reviewed by George and Nesic [7].…”

Effect of acetic acid on CO2 corrosion of carbon steel in NaCl solution

“…Hedges and McVeigh [3] reported an increase in the cathodic reaction in the presence of HAc. Garsany et al [4] studied the effect of acetate ions on the rates and mechanisms of corrosion by using a rotating disk electrode. They found that it was not possible to distinguish the reduction of hydrogen ions from direct HAc reduction because HAc dissociation occurs very quickly.…”