Corrosion Inhibitor Characterization with Rewarding Laboratory Tests for Oil Pipelines

Abstract Oil-soluble and water-dispersible corrosion inhibitors are normally used to mitigate corrosion in pipelines operating. The performance of corrosion inhibitors has been described mainly in terms of the adsorption of surfactants on metal surfaces. The persistence of the adsorbed film is primarily evaluated by corrosion tests. That is why the corrosion tests are the main technique for the inhibitor evaluation. However, the partition of the surfactant from oil to water and its dispersion in water should also significantly affect the corrosion inhibition mechanism. We propose the evaluation methods and show examples of quality evaluation. The corrosion inhibitor was characterized with relatively familiar instruments at the oil company's laboratory. Those measurement such as average molecular weight, TOC, Zeta potential and particle size were conducted among the qualification of corrosion inhibitors. As a result, the amount of dispersion, the stability of dispersion and the some component could be evaluated even for commercial products in more detail. Those data must be useful to assess the quality stability and will contribute the inhibitor selection.