Corrosion in supercritical fluids

Integrated studies were carried out in the areas of corrosion, thermodynamic modeling, and electrochemistry under pressure and temperature conditions appropriate for potential applications of supercritical fluid (SCF) extractive metallurgy. Carbon dioxide and water were the primary fluids studied. Modifiers were used in some tests; these consisted of 1 wt% water and 10 wt% methanol for carbon dioxide and of sulfuric acid, sodium sulfate, ammonium sulfate, and ammonium nitrate at concentrations ranging from 0.00517 to 0.010 M for the aqueous fluids. The materials studied were Types 304 and 316 (UNS S30400 and S31600) stainless steel, iron, and AISI-SAE 1080 (UNS G10800) carbon steel. The thermodynamic modeling consisted of development of a personal computer-based program for generating Pourbaix diagrams at supercritical conditions in aqueous systems. As part of the model, a general method for extrapolating entropies and related thermodynamic properties from ambient to SCF conditions was developed. The experimental work was used as a tool to evaluate the predictions of the model for these systems. The model predicted a general loss of passivation in iron-based alloys at SCF conditions that was consistent with experimentally measured corrosion rates and open circuit potentials. For carbon-dioxide-based SCFs, measured corrosion rates were low, indicating that carbon steel would be suitable for use with unmodified carbon dioxide, while Type 304 stainless steel would be suitable for use with water or methanol as modifiers.