Corrosion behaviour of superaustenitic stainless steel N08029 in harsh acidizing environment

It is vital to examine the resistance to corrosion of corrosion resistant alloys (CRAs) in severe oilfield corrosive environments such as acidizing to validate their performance. Super austenitic stainless steel (SASS) UNS N08029 was recently developed to offer competitive and improved corrosion resistance in extreme and aggressive environments. However, no systematic studies have evaluated the N08029 performance in acidizing conditions. In this study, N08029 was investigated in harsh acidizing conditions of different HCl concentrations (up to 25 % HCl), long immersion duration (up to 48 h), and at elevated temperatures (up to 80 °C) using both weight loss and electrochemical measurement techniques. Interestingly, all the test methods show that the corrosion resistance of the SASS increases with increasing the concentration of HCl acid. This may be due to the formation of ferric chloride protective layer on the steel surface after the dissolution of the formed chromium oxide layer by the increasing acid concentration. The decrease in the corrosion rate observed at higher HCl concentrations is because the higher concentration of HCl causes the more ferric chloride layer to form on the metal's surface. This layer protects the metal from further acid attack. Also, after 24 h immersion duration, a decrease in corrosion rate with further increase immersion duration was observed which may is also due to the formation of more ferric chloride protective layer. However, the corrosion resistant of the SASS was observed to decrease with increase in temperature of the test solution. The decreased resistance of the SASS to corrosion with increase in temperature is associated with the instability or damage of the passive/protective film on the surface of the SASS at elevated temperatures.