Electrochemical corrosion monitoring in low conductive fluid : pilot-scale study on sulfolane corrosion potential

Abstract

Solvents are a group of chemical compounds that are widespread in the organic chemistry. Taking into account the chemical nature, solvents are divided into the protic and aprotic ones. An attractive alternative to commonly used indus-trial extractive liquids is an anthropogenic, organosulfur medium – sulfolane. Sulfolane is a five-membered heterocyclic sulfur-organic compound from the group of sulfones (ArSO2), which contains an apolar hydrocarbon backbone and a polar functional group. It is a selective solvent in the liquid-liquid and liquid-vapour extraction processes used for the removal of close-boiling alkanes from cycloalkanes or for the separation of compounds with different degree of satu-ration and polarity in the extractive rectification of arenes from non-aromatic saturated hydrocarbon mixtures. In the standard conditions sulfolane is not an aggressive solvent for steel, but at higher temperature (170-180ºC) and oxygen availability, it may be decomposed and subsequently some corrosive (by-)prod-ucts can be formed. The primary purpose of the presented pilot-case study was to verify the applicability of the industrial, multi-electrochemical technique for reliable detection of the corrosion processes in the low conductive fluids.