Corrosion Derived Iron Carbonate SLIPS for Calcium Carbonate Scale Mitigation

The focus of this research is to build on an emerging surface technology, known as Slippery Liquid Infused Porous Surfaces (SLIPS) or Lubricant
Infused Surfaces (LIS). The newly designed surface is intended specifically to provide anti-fouling capabilities in an oilfield environment. This concept brings
together a number of large research bodies including CO2 corrosion, mineral scaling, surface engineering and SLIPS knowledge. The idea is to use the
corrosion by-products, already occurring in oil pipelines to generate an antiscale surface in the framework of temporary SLIPS design. SLIPS is a concept idea that has yet to be fully commercialised in the industry but has shown great promise in a number of similar applications. This research is undertaken to confirm existing understanding of the SLIPS system and investigate a new SLIPS combination for oilfield scale applications, specifically calcium carbonate (CaCO3) environments. The intended starting point for this research is the construction of a SLIPS with commercial relevance. Here carbon steel has been used initially due to its prevalence in the industry. The surface will be modified for lubricant infusion by incorporating a naturally occurring CO2 corrosion process to form a corrosion by-product film. The corrosion product will be an initially, corrosion resistant, iron carbonate (FeCO3) crystal layer. This layer has been fabricated based on
optimum environmental conditions and characterised to provide further details on key surface properties. Next a predictive model has been applied to
theoretically and experimentally validate the various components of the SLIPS system (i.e substrate, fabrication method, and lubricant). The end product is
the formation of a repeatable and stable SLIPS base layer that has been successfully tested with four different lubricant options in preliminary conditions to stimulate flow assurance issues in the Oilfield. This work develops the body of knowledge in the SLIPS and Flow assurance field (including corrosion and scaling) and how they interact together.