Fruit Extracts as Natural, Green, Non-Toxic Corrosion Inhibitors

Abstract

Corrosion inhibitors currently used in the oil and gas industry are associated with environmental concerns and severe health risks. Recent advancements in corrosion inhibition technology had successfully tackled environmental concerns, but still faces issues with toxicity and performance at high temperatures. This work aims to develop environmentally friendly and non-toxic corrosion inhibitors that can overcome these limitations. Extracts of 14 common fruits were tested as sources of potential corrosion inhibitors. In order to determine the inhibition effectiveness of the different fruits, N-80 coupons were exposed to 15 wt.% HCl solutions at temperatures between 77-250 °F with 0.2-2 wt.% of dried ground fruit for 6 hours. In addition, a control solution containing no corrosion inhibitor was used to establish a corrosion rate for a base case. Upon identifying high performing dried ground fruits, extracts of these fruits were subsequently tested to save cost by minimizing quantity needed while achieving acceptable performance. At a concentration of 2 wt.%, fruits 1 and 2 were found to perform the best, exhibiting more than 98% corrosion inhibition efficiency at 77°F. Fruits 11 and 12 were observed to perform the worst, going so far as to enhance corrosion on the coupons. At 150°F, the corrosion rate of fruit extract 1 was 0.00436 lb/ft2, while that of fruit extract 2 was 0.0277 lb/ft2. At 200°F, the addition of a corrosion inhibitor intensifier resulted in a corrosion rate of 0.00130 lb/ft2 for fruit extract 1 and 0.0173 lb/ft2 for fruit extract 2. At 250°F, a second corrosion inhibitor intensifier was used. The resulting corrosion rate was 0.0320 lb/ft2 for fruit extract 1 and 0.00963 lb/ft2 for fruit extract 2. These results show that a naturally occurring, green, non-toxic corrosion inhibitor can be developed from these fruits and can comfortably pass the industry requirement of achieving corrosion rates below 0.05 lb/ft2 for low carbon steel tubulars. Corrosion during acid treatments causes destruction to the tubulars and downhole equipment. Consequently, this leads to an increase in expenditure to maintain well production rates and well integrity. Therefore, corrosion inhibitors must be included in any acid treatment formulation. The results in this work share two new naturally occurring, green, non-toxic, high-temperature stable corrosion inhibitors that can be developed from fruits and can successfully protect the tubular during acid treatments.