Oil & Gas Pipeline Protection
The upstream, mid-stream and downstream operations of oil and gas industry are some of the most vulnerable to corrosion caused by acidic gases, salt-spray and fog depending on the specific operational environments such as refinery, oil and gas tanker ship, or transmission pipelines:
Oil and gas operation from drilling to transmission and transport and refinery and delivery are some of the more safety-centric operations that required all of the steel supporting rigs, storage tanks, shipping tankers, transmission pipelines, and refinery towels and fields to be at their best designed strength and stress tolerance.
All of the oil and gas infrastructure and supporting steel tankers and towels are subjected to UV damaging the epoxy and polyurethane protected steels while the corrosive gases and moisture laden with salts are penetrating through to the steel-paint interfaces to cause corrosion.
All of the oil and gas infrastructures and steel structures on land and at seas that are corroding can benefit from the immediate stopping of further corrosion with field applicable modified PVDF FLUOROSEAL® CPC-7150 and CPC-7280 corrosion protection coating.
Oil and gas transmission pipelines are primarily made of carbon steel that have been coated with thick FBE (fused bonded epoxy) both inside and out. Those pipeline above ground subjects to the UV damaging and water-moisture induced corrosion. Those pipeline below ground while not exposed to UV but can be exposed more to acidic water, galvanic and other deleterious factors. Once a leak occurred, the environmental damage can be high and expensive to clean up.
Oil and gas transmission pipelines, shipping tankers, and storage tanks are primarily made of carbon steel that have been coated with epoxy or polyurethane both inside and out. Those surfaces above ground subjects to the UV damaging and water-moisture, and in case of sea going shipping tankers: the salt-spray and salt-fog that causes corrosion. The unique molecular energy and packing of the modified PVDF FLUOROSEAL® CPC-7150, is the first and only top-coating that blocks UV, salt ions and acidic gases from penetrating into the steel interfaces to stop the corrosion process immediately upon coating.
The above pictures of oil and gas transmission pipelines, shipping tankers, and storage tanks showed signs of corrosion and coating damages by UV. In the case of storage tanks near refinery, also subjects to moisture-water laden with corrosive gases that can penetrate through the coating to cause corrosion at the coating-steel interfaces. For the shipping tankers, they are subjected to even more aggressive salt water, salt-spray and salt-fog that causes corrosion.
The following illustrations detailed the important scientific findings and reasons on why some polymer-based coatings are more effective is sealing protection and shielding the steel and metal surfaces from corrosion by blocking off the corrosive elements that are carried by moisture-water molecules. Molecular structure having higher bonding energy and better packing provides higher barrier for penetration from moisture that has one of the smallest kinetic diameter the can carried along ions and dissolved corrosive gases such as hydrogen sulfide, Sulfur dioxide, carbon dioxide, nitric oxide, etc.
The effectiveness of FLUOROSEAL® corrosion protection capability in blocking corrosive gases and moisture laden with these corrosive ions and acidic elements are demonstrated under the heat-humidity-sulfide exposure test on the bottom right. Uncoated and those coated with acrylic type molecular structure showed extensive corrosion and degradation. The surfaces of the aluminum foil protected by FLUOROSEAL® CPC-7150 modified PVDF is clearly demonstrated.
Oil and gas transmission pipelines, storage tanks, and shipping tankers are constructed with Carbone steel and coated with epoxy-polyurethane protection coatings. While inside contact surfaces are not exposed to UV damaging effect, they are subjected to much strong impurities components with water as carrying media. Epoxy and polyurethane coating are with fundamental polymer molecular structure that are more susceptible to penetration of moisture and moisture laden with salt ions and acidic gases. These deleterious elements along the interfaces of steel and coating induces rusting and delamination. The following is an illustration of this vulnerability while also showing the effectiveness of FLUOROSEAL® corrosion protection coating CPC-7280 over-coating directly on the epoxy coating to prevent and stop these damaging elements from penetrating and protecting the steel integrity under the epoxy coating.
Inside the Oil and gas transmission pipelines, shipping tankers, and storage tanks with carbon steel coated with epoxy are exposed to corrosive impurities such as sulfides, salts and other contaminants. The unique molecular energy and packing of the modified and crosslinked FLUOROSEAL® CPC-7280, is the first and only field applicable PVDF top-coating that blocks water laden with salt ions and dissolved acidic gases from penetrating into the steel interfaces to stop the corrosion processes.
No matter how thick and carefully are the epoxy coated carbon steel may have when they are put into service, any break or breach into the well protected steel surfaces causes penetration by ions and dissolved acidic gases laden water and impurities to cause corrosion.
In this above experiment, a fully FBE coated steel bar is cut on both sides. One side is left exposed to simulate loss of protective coating (can be mechanical accident or stress concentration corner) while the other side is coated with FLUOROSEAL® CPC-7280. When the steel pieces are exposed to sulfur-chlorine-moisture at slight warm (60°C) to accelerate the penetration and corrosion. The side NOT PROTECTED with the top-coating of FLUOROSEAL® slowly corroded with migrate inward towards the securely coated areas while the exposed steel protected showed no sign of corrosion including the top-coated epoxy surface.