Testing corrosion rates on steel piping in geothermal district heating

Abstract

The corrosion behavior of St-37 pipeline carbon steel (CS) in a geothermal district heating system was tested at two different fluid velocities. An experimental set-up, directly connected the the end of the transmission line of a geothermal well, was used to assess the corrosion of St-37 steel tensile test coupons prepared in accordance with ASTM E8 in geothermal fluid. The geothermal fluid entered the set-up with a relatively low velocity, 0.02 m/s, and then injected into the well with a relatively high fluid velocity, 9.6 m/s. It was observed that while the uniform corrosion rates were relatively low, pitting corrosion rate, mainly driven by the sulfate-reducing bacteria (SRB) activity, was relatively high and more pronounced at low fluid velocities. St-37 steel material is prone to the pitting type corrosion, thus a biocide chemical addition and the fluid velocity of 2 to 3 m/s in transmission line were recommended to reduce SRB activity to reduce the pitting corrosion rate.