Reading the top of the pipe

In a wet gas line the bottom is the obvious worry. The top is the sneaky one. Warm gas meets cold steel, water condenses on the upper wall, and CO2 or H2S turn it acidic. Ordinary inhibitors sit in the liquid at the bottom and never reach it. This is top-of-line corrosion, and it is the problem Assoc. Prof. Ir. Dr. Najmiddin Yaakob works on. He wrote his 2015 PhD on it, in CO2 and H2S environments, at Ohio University’s Institute for Corrosion and Multiphase Technology.

Back at UiTM he built a top-of-line corrosion glass cell for Daya Secadyme in 2017, then a volatile corrosion inhibitor formulation, one that travels with the vapour. PETRONAS Research funded a study of volatile inhibitors in marginal sour conditions in 2023. Clariant and Hextar Kimia followed with inhibitor testing and top and bottom of line work.

The newest contracts are about reading the evidence. For Rohrback Cosasco Systems UK, the team analyses and interprets corrosion coupons from the Pengerang refinery and petrochemical complex (PRefChem) in Johor. Through Chemsain Konsultant, it set baselines for polymer HDPE coupons from flexible pipes operated by PTTEP.