Black Powder Inhibitors—Performance Study

Sales gas pipeline systems with large diameters and long pipeline lengths can experience the formation of large quantities of black powder. There are a variety of iron oxides, iron carbonates, iron sulphides, and other contaminants that comprise black powder. Several corrosive gases, including oxygen, carbon dioxide, and hydrogen sulfide, can cause black powder formation.

This paper describes a research study that was conducted to assess the performance of 13 inhibitors specially formulated for the mitigation of black powder formation. In-house procedures were developed specifically to evaluate these inhibitors under simulated sales gas compositions containing H₂S, CO₂, and O₂. Two inhibitors passed these tests showing a corrosion inhibition effectiveness of approximately 90% and no pitting attack under simulated sales gas environment.