The Degradation of Austenitic Stainless Steel at High Temperature in Simulated Carbon Monoxide Containing Atmosphere of Biomass-to-Liquid Plants

Abstract

Biomass fuel is effective renewable energy and being used for replacing fossil fuel energy. It can be produced from synthesis gas containing a high percentage of carbon monoxide (CO) and hydrogen (H2) in biomass-to-liquid plants. Austenitic stainless steel AISI 316L (Cr17% Ni 10% Mo 2%) is used for equipment parts in chemical and petrochemical industries due to good corrosion resistance at various operating conditions. The corrosion resistance of stainless steel may be degraded by the reduction reaction of the passive film and carbide formation from carbon diffusion, which leads to the intergranular corrosion on the steel surface. This research aims to study the degradation of stainless steel AISI 316L in a simulated carbon monoxide containing atmosphere at 15-45%CO and a sensitizing temperature of 800 °C. Before the test, the samples were preoxidized in the air at 800 °C for 6 hours. An electrochemical reactivation (EPR) technique was used to analyze for detecting sensitization. The mass change of AISI 316L slightly increased after the reduction test. Besides, the high carbon diffusion was shown on the steel surfaces as chromium carbides at the high percentage of carbon monoxide.

Corrosion resistant degradation of AISI 304 austenitic stainless steel exposed to simulated carburizing environments

“…Marián Vach et al [21] reported that the second phase particles, such as M23C6, can be found in the austenitic stainless steel and the presence of those particles resulted in increased hardness. Treewiriyakitja et al [22] found the formation of carbide particles resulted in the degraded corrosion resistance of austenitic stainless steel. In this experiment, microstructural analysis in Fig.…”

The high temperature degradation of ferritic stainless steel in solid carbon atmospheres

“…Using ferritic stainless steel at high temperatures is one possible way to reduce material costs for general stainless-steel components under low aggressive environments in power plants. However, intergranular corrosion and deterioration of passive film may present during the combustion process due to carbon diffusion [9][10][11]. Solid carbon from soot particles can diffuse into austenite grain at temperatures between 830℃ to 1400℃ and form chromium carbide along grain boundaries following Equation (1-3) [5,12,13].…”