Boron oxide and magnesium oxide as an additıve vanadic corrosion inhibitor for heavy fuel oil

Abstract

Boron oxide (B₂O₃) is investigated as a second oxide with regard to magnesium oxide (MgO) to inhibit the vanadic corrosion caused by the ash resulting from burning heavy fuel oil (HFO). The inhibitory effect is achieved by changing the composition of the resultant ash by forming higher melting points components as magnesium pyroborate (Mg₂B₂O₅) (PB) and magnesium orthoborate (Mg₃B₂O₆) (OB) that in turn reacts with corrosive, low melting point vanadium oxide (V₂O₅) to yield refractory higher melting point magnesium orthovanadate (Mg₃V₂O₈) (OV). MgO nanoparticles were successfully synthesized by co-precipitation technique at room temperature using magnesium nitrate and sodium hydroxide as a precursor, and B₂O₃ was successfully synthesized by thermal decomposition of boric acid. Both oxides were sonicated with oleic acid (OA). The morphological investigation of both nanoparticles oxides was done by Scanning Electron Microscope (SEM–EDX), X-ray Diffraction (XRD) for indicating the crystallinity and crystal size of nanoparticle, Fourier Transform Infrared spectroscopy for analyzing the functional groups of the samples. Nanoparticle oxides suspended in OA was added to HFO which is burned to obtain ash according to ASTM D482. The morphological investigation and composition of the ash were done by (SEM) and (XRD) to identify and compare the resulting compounds before and after the addition of the oxides.