A NOVEL ELECTRICAL POTENTIAL DROP METHOD FOR THE DETECTION OF NAPHTHENIC ACID CORROSION IN OIL REFINING PROCESSING

摘要

Since the beginning of oil refining, the petrochemical industry has been plagued with corrosion due to acid within the crude oil. As oil fields age and refining processes require greater production, the industry is looking to produce petroleum products from crude oils containing greater concentration of acid leading to industry concerns about corrosion of the refining infrastructure. General Electric (GE) has developed a novel system capable of providing continuous monitoring of piping or vessel components during plant operation providing a measure of material removed due to corrosion. The operation of this system is based on the measurement of changes to electrical potential drop caused by the removal of material due to corrosion. The system developed has been shown to be capable of acquiring accurate corrosion data during plant operations. Measurement process data acquired from plant operation and laboratory experiments will be discussed.