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Geothermal brines often contain high amounts of lead and copper ions that can precipitate as native Cu and Pb as consequence of galvanic corrosion when brines react with carbon steel materials. This contribution evaluates which materials could overcome the problem of galvanic corrosion at geothermal environment.
The behavior of these materials in water containing high chloride concentration (> 100 g/L NaCl) as well as various amounts of dissolved bCl2 and/or CuCl2 was characterized by electrochemical and exposure measurements.
Both methods reveal carbon steel suffers corrosion susceptibility, accompanied by Cu◦ and/or Pb◦ precipitation on the surface. Electrochemical measurements on stainless steels result in significant difference in corrosion and repassivation potentials (Ecorr = -189 mV, Erep = 70 mV), indicating a good corrosion resistance.
Geothermal energy is an interesting alternative to polluting fossil energy sources. Therefore, in Belgium, two wells have been drilled for a deep geothermal power plant. However, the environment to which the installations are exposed is challenging. The geothermal brine has 165 g/l total dissolved solids (of which 90% are sodium and chlorine) and the production temperature can be up to 130 °C. To assess their suitability to be used in a geothermal power plant, the corrosivity of the artificial brine to three common construction materials was investigated with exposure and electrochemical tests. The metals under consideration are a low-alloyed carbon steel (S235JR), an austenitic stainless steel (UNS S31603) and a duplex stainless steel (UNS S31803). The carbon steel, that was found to corrode uniformly, could be considered as a constructional material if a sufficient wall thickness is chosen. The austenitic stainless steel and the duplex stainless steel demonstrate very low uniform
corrosion rates. They are however susceptible to pitting and crevice corrosion. To guarantee safe operation of the geothermal power plant, the susceptibility of the alloys to stress corrosion cracking should be tested and in situ experiments should be performed.
Geothermal sources are found to be the most aggressive natural environments for construction materials in terms of corrosion. This study was focused on investigating the suitability of stainless steel UNS S31603 in volcanic areas of geothermal sites Sibayak and Lahendong (Indonesia). Influence of different factors (temperatures up to 175 °C, chloride content up to 1500 mg/L and pH down to 2) was assessed to determine a 'safe operating window' of a power plant and assure the system integrity. Investigations were performed by means of electrochemical methods and long-term exposure tests.