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MATERIAL MATTERS Continued from page 17
laborating with industry and generating a steady funding stream, Cullin plans to hire a full-time corrosion technician to work on research and testing. The need for well-trained engineers
Laboratory Manager Birgit Hagedorn (left) and Matt Cullin use ion chromatography at UAA's ASET Laboratory to analyze fluid samples for a corrosion research project. The capabilities of the ASET Laboratory will complement the university's AIC Laboratory. Photo courtesy of Matt Cullin.
The AIC Laboratory will be set up as
a home base for conducting a variety of fundamental corrosion-related electro- chemical experiments, tests, and ASTM International standard test methods. These include chemical analyses of liquid and metal samples, ground/wastewater samples, and samples of liquid fuels de- rived from biomass; critical pitting tem- perature tests; inhibitor effectiveness tests; surface analyses; and environmental characterizations, says Cullin. He is cur- ZMV\Ta W]\Å\\QVO \PM TIJ _Q\P MY]QXUMV\ that can handle potentially corrosive samples, and items on order include a high-pressure, high-temperature auto- clave, several potentiostats, a UV/Vis spectrophotometer, a total organic car- bon (TOC) analyzer, and a Raman microscope. The corrosion lab will also utilize as-
sets in UAA's Applied Science, Engineer- ing, and Technology (ASET) Laboratory, which include a scanning electron micro- scope (SEM) with energy dispersive spec- troscopy (EDS), a gas chromatography– mass spectrometry (GC-MS) unit, and an inductively coupled plasma mass spec- trometry (ICP-MS) unit. Cullin will over-
18 MATERIALS PERFORMANCE April 2012
see the work done in the AIC Laboratory; however, he emphasizes that both under- graduate and graduate students will run tests and conduct research and experi- ments.
The AIC Lab will be able to provide support to better corrosion
understand CO2
on Alaska's North Slope. So far, response regarding the lab
from the oil and gas industry has been very positive, Cullin comments, adding that developing close university/industry partnerships will be important for sustain- ing the lab and assuring its success. One of his goals is to regularly invite represen- tatives from local companies to work on research projects in the lab and he plans to provide bench space and equipment so they can conduct tests and experiments at the university. "Having experts in the lab working on projects side by side with the students will be great for the students, great for the school, and great for indus- try," Cullin says. In a year or two, once the corrosion lab is established and successfully col-
with experience in Alaska's corrosion issues has never been greater, particu- larly as oil and gas infrastructure on Alaska's North Slope ages and corrosion continues to be a challenge. In a report1 for the Alaska Department of Environ- mental Conservation that analyzed North Slope crude oil spills between July 1, 1995 and December 31, 2009, corrosion is listed as the most frequent cause of spills greater than 10,000 gal (37,850 L), with external corrosion re- XWZ\ML I[ \PM LWUQVIV\ KI][M WN ÆW_ TQVM spills. The second largest spill in the re- port's data set was caused by internal corrosion of a transmission pipeline. 7VM [QOVQÅKIV\ KWVKMZV NWZ WQT IVL OI[
operators on Alaska's North Slope is carbon dioxide (CO2
) corrosion, says Cul- lin. CO2 present in an oil or gas stream
will dissolve in water and form carbonic acid (H2
CO3 ), which is corrosive to car-
bon steel and other low-alloy steels. CO2 corrosion can be responsible for failures
in downhole tubing, transmission pipe- lines, and other equipment. He notes the AIC Laboratory, with its capability to perform CO2
corrosion experiments, test
KWZZW[QWV QVPQJQ\WZ MNÅKQMVKa IVL UMI- sure corrosion rates, will be able to pro-
vide support to better understand CO2 corrosion. The lab will be able to investi- gate other corrosion issues as well—for example, the corrosive effect of certain contaminants in monoethylene glycol systems. Contact Matt Cullin, University of Alaska Anchorage—e-mail: afmc2@uaa.alaska.edu.
Reference 1 "Alaska North Slope Spills Analysis, Final Report on North Slope Spills Analysis and Expert Panel Recommendations on Miti- gation Measures," Nuka Research and Planning Group, November 2010, pp. iii-iv.
NACE International, Vol. 51, No. 4