Investigation of Elemental Sulfur Corrosion Mechanisms

                                             INVESTIGATION OF ELEMENTAL SULFUR CORROSION MECHANISM

Haitao Fang, Srdjan Nešić, Bruce Brown, David Young

Institute for Corrosion and Multiphase Technology

Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering

 Ohio University

342 West State Street

Athens, OH  45701

 

Elemental sulfur is often produced by sour gas wells. The fact that elemental sulfur can cause catastrophic corrosion problems to carbon steel has been well documented. The objective of this project is to investigate the elemental sulfur corrosion mechanism.

Based upon the current literature on elemental sulfur corrosion, sulfur hydrolysis and sulfur/iron reaction were both studied in this work. The sulfur hydrolysis reaction was shown to occur, however, it does not appear to play a dominant role during elemental sulfur corrosion. Experimental results confirmed electrochemical reactions to be the basis of the controlling mechanism for elemental sulfur corrosion.

Keywords: elemental sulfur corrosion, hydrolysis, electrochemical reaction