Rates of hydrogen evolution and hydrogen absorption were determined by use of membrane experiments in environments simulating soil conditions. The objective of this work was to determine the amount of hydrogen absorbed by steel under various conditions encountered by cathodically protected pipelines. The conditions investigated included a pH range of 3 to 9, absence of and saturation by oxygen, effects of cathode poisons, and metal-to-soil potentials. For a given pipe-to-soil potential, the rate of hydrogen penetration of steel is decreased by the presence of oxygen and arsenic, and increased by the presence of sulfide.

A study was made of the absorption of electrolytically generated hydrogen by nickel and iron‐nickel alloys. It was shown that the experimental rate law for the absorption of hydrogen is normalRate of Absorption=k ][Hnormalads+I By controlling the current density it was possible to obtain experimental conditions such that the rate law agreed with the following mechanism Hnormalads→Hnormalabs It was shown that the primary cause for changes in the rate of absorption of hydrogen on alloying iron with nickel is changes in the amount of adsorbed hydrogen.