Papers - - Production Engineering and Engineering Research - Comparative Resistance of Certain Commercial Ferrous Materials to Corrosion by Gaseous Hydrogen Sulfide (Summary with discussion)

A corrosion-testing apparatus which operates in the field and which will determine the comparative resistance of various ferrous materials to corrosion by gaseous hydrogen sulfide at ordinary temperatures is described. The principle of the uniform method of testing is to allow natural gas containing hydrogen sulfide, direct from its source in the field, to flow over the group of specimens for a given period of time, and subsequently to estimate the corrosion sustained by each specimen by determining its loss in weight. The comparative results obtained when specimens of 47 representative ferrous materials of described typical composition \\ere tested at ordinary temperatures with natural gas containing hydrogen sulfide are given in tables showing average penetration of metal, Inches per year. The primary purpose of the work Mas to determine the possible utllity to the petroleum and natural gas industries of ferrous materials that are commercially available, and no attempt is made to discuss the results of the tests from the metallurgical standpoint. The following is a summary of the results obtained: 1. Steels containing 12 to 27 per cent of chromium showed the highest resistance to corrosion. The presence of nickel In these high-chromium steels did not affect their resistance. 2. Steels containing approximately 5 per cent of chromium showed comparatively high resistance, but somewhat less than that of the high-chromium steels.