Sulphuric Acid Corrosion is an acidic environment "disease" commonly occurring in sulfuric acid alkylation units where process control or water contents of acids deviate from design operation. As with HF alkylation units, sulfuric acid carryover into equipment and piping systems that were not constructed to resist sulfuric acid at certain concentrations and temperatures can lead to higher corrosion rates. Reactor effluent lines, reboilers, deisobutanizer overheads, caustic treating systems, and flare lines are particularly vulnerable. However, with rigid control of acid concentration, fluid velocity, temperature and the avoidance of acid carryover, sulfuric acid alkylation units can be operated reliably with high integrity.
Is this definition incomplete? You can help by contributing to it.
|
September/October 2004 Inspectioneering Journal
By John Reynolds at Intertek
Unlike NAC where we’re still on a learning curve, the knowledge of corrosion by sulfuric acid has not changed much in the last quarter century, and there are many good references for it included in API RP 571. |
|
News
US Chemical Safety Board, August 15, 2014
The U.S. CSB released a report on tubing samples taken from the Tesoro Refinery in Martinez, California, concluding that a sulfuric acid spill resulted from insufficient tightening between a tube and a compression joint at a sulfuric acid sampling station. |
