Basil Oil as an Environmentally Friendly Corrosion Inhibitor for AISI 1010 Mild Steel Pipes in the Cooling Towers

One of the most significant industrial problems is the corrosion of construction metals such as mild steel in pipes and storage tanks of cooling towers. Several preventive measures are used to minimize corrosion. One of them uses various corrosion inhibitors, some of which are organic and others inorganic. Most inorganic corrosion inhibitors are environmentally unfriendly materials. These inhibitors, mixed with cooling tower water, are discharged into rivers or seawater. Many of them are toxic and affect biological life through their ingestion by humans and animals or through their entry into the soil. Basil plant oil is suggested as a new corrosion inhibitor; it is environmentally friendly, sustainable, and low-cost. This study examined its effectiveness compared to the well-known green corrosion inhibitor Eugenol. Various concentration rates were tested to determine the optimal efficiency using Eugenol under the actual temperature, velocity, and pH conditions of Al Daura refinery cooling towers: 40°C, 300 RPM, and pH = 7. The exact circumstances applied to Basil plant oil to compare efficiencies. The Weight loss method was used. Tests were carried out in accordance with the American Society for Testing and Materials regulations. The corrosion rate recorded 0.022185947 and 0.004108509 mm per year for the Eugenol and Basil plant oils, respectively. The efficiency reached 89.2% using a concentration of 0.5 milliliter/Liter of Eugenol. The efficiency increased to 98% by using the same amount of Basil plant oil. A new equation was derived to compute the increase in the metal age when using a specific corrosion inhibitor.