Corrosion studies in brines of the Salton Sea Geothermal Field

Technical Report · Mon Jan 01 00:00:00 EST 1979

DOI:https://doi.org/10.2172/6305325· OSTI ID:6305325

Carter, J P; McCawley, F X; Cramer, S D; Needham, Jr, P B

Toward the goal of maximizing minerals and metals recovery from domestic resources, the Bureau of Mines, U.S. Department of the Interior, has conducted in situ corrosion studies at the Salton Sea Known Geothermal Resources Area (KGRA) in the Imperial Valley, Calif., to evaluate and characterize materials of construction for geothermal resources recovery plants. General-, pitting, and crevice-corrosion characteristics of 13 commercially available alloys were investigated for periods of 15 and 30 days in seven process environments expected to be found in typical geothermal resources plants. Stainless steel alloy 29-4, Inconel 625, and the Hastelloys G, S, and C-276 were the most resistant to general corrosion, did not pit, and exhibited little susceptibility to crevice corrosion. Stainless steel alloys 430, E-Brite 26-1, and 6X had low general corrosion rates, but pitted and were susceptible to crevice corrosion. Stainless steel alloy 316 L had a low corrosion rate, but corroded intergranularly, pitted, and was susceptible to crevice corrosion and to stress-corrosion cracking. Titanium--1.5 nickel and TiCode-12 had low corrosion rates, did not pit, and were not susceptible to crevice corrosion. Carbon and 4130 steels had high corrosion rates, pitted, and had high susceptibilities to crevice corrosion. The major scale-forming mineral on the corrosion samples in most of the process environments studied was galena mixed with lesser amounts of other minerals.

• Research Organization: Bureau of Mines, Avondale, MD (USA). Avondale Metallurgy Research Center; Bureau of Mines, Washington, DC (United States)
• OSTI ID: 6305325
• Report Number(s): BM-RI-8350
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

15 GEOTHERMAL ENERGY
BRINES
CORROSIVE EFFECTS
HASTELLOYS
CORROSION
INCONEL 625
SALTON SEA GEOTHERMAL FIELD
STAINLESS STEELS
STEELS
TITANIUM ALLOYS
IMPERIAL VALLEY
INTERGRANULAR CORROSION
PITTING CORROSION
SCALING
STRESS CORROSION
ALLOYS
CALIFORNIA
CHEMICAL REACTIONS
CHROMIUM ALLOYS
CORROSION RESISTANT ALLOYS
GEOTHERMAL FIELDS
HEAT RESISTANT MATERIALS
HEAT RESISTING ALLOYS
INCONEL ALLOYS
IRON ALLOYS
IRON BASE ALLOYS
MATERIALS
MOLYBDENUM ALLOYS
NICKEL ALLOYS
NICKEL BASE ALLOYS
NIOBIUM ALLOYS
NORTH AMERICA
TANTALUM ALLOYS
USA
WESTERN REGION
Geothermal Legacy
150901* - Geothermal Engineering- Drilling Technology & Well Hardware