Corrosion characteristics of boronized AISI 8620 steel in oil field water containing H2S

The corrosion behaviours of non-boronized and boronized AISI 8620 steels in both oil field water and H2S-saturated oil field water have been investigated by means of immersion test, electrochemical method, X-ray diffraction and scanning electron microscopy. The experimental results show that boronized steel has better corrosion resistance to as-received oil field water and H2S-saturated oil field water than the non-boronized steel. Both non-boronized and boronized steels have reacted with H2S and form corrosion film of FeS, which could not retard the corrosion process due to pores and cracks in the FeS film, and large scale of pitting corrosion is found on non-boronized AISI 8620 steel surface. The immersion corrosion of non-boronized AISI8620 in both corrosion solutions can be divided into two stages: the rapid corrosion stage with high slope and the gradual corrosion stage with low slope, corresponding to uniform corrosion and corrosive product scaling off the surface, respectively. The better corrosion resistance shown by boronized AISI 8620 steel is ascribed to lower corrosion current as compared with the non-boronized AISI8620 steel.