Bioinspired Nanoaugmentation of CO2 Corrosion Product in Energy Industries

In the oil and gas industry, internal corrosion of carbon steel pipelines is commonly controlled via corrosion inhibitors during production and transportation of carbon dioxide (CO2)-containing salt water and hydrocarbons. In specific operational environments, the protective natural corrosion product layers can evolve on internal pipeline walls, providing comparable corrosion efficiency to that achieved from surfactants. The prevalent corrosion product found on steel surfaces in CO2-containing aqueous environments is iron carbonate (FeCO3). The formation of such corrosion product on the internal walls of carbon steel pipelines can offer a physical barrier to steel surface and suppress material dissolution by over an order of magnitude, providing an efficient, cost-effective and eco-friendly form of corrosion inhibition. One significant limitation associated with relying upon solely FeCO3 to suppress material dissolution is its propensity to be locally removed by chemical or mechanical mechanisms. Furthermore, in some instances, incomplete corrosion product coverage can initiate localised corrosion. The objective of this thesis was to transpose biomineralization processes to corrosion field as a novel strategy to generate a mineral-polymer nanocomposite layer in situ on an X65 steel surface in a CO2 corrosion environment. To achieve such objectives, two organic additives were employed aiming to obtain an augmented corrosion product with superior corrosion protection behaviour and physico-mechanical properties.