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CHAPTER TWO
CORROSION IN MEA-BASED CO
2
CAPTURE PROCESS

2.1 Background to corrosion

Corrosion is one of the major problems found within the CO
2
capture process in
amine-treated plants. It severely damages plant utilities such as the absorber, stripper,
trays, pipelines, and valves and results in reduction of the process efficiency, as well as
induces unnecessary maintenance costs. Since this research is focused on the CO
2
capture
from simulated post-combustion coal-fired flue gas by absorption with MEA solvent, the
information on corrosion mechanisms, corrosion kinetics, and corrosion prevention with-
in the CO
2
capture process using aqueous MEA solution should be well established.

Firstly, the questions of what corrosion is and what types of corrosion can be ob-
served in typical MEA-treatment plants should be answered. Corrosion can be described
as an attack on a metallic material by reaction with its environment (Roberge, 1999).
Even though corrosion can also occur on non-metallic materials, this research mainly is
focused on corrosion of metallic-based substances, to be specific, low carbon steel 1020,
which is normally used as a capture plants construction material. Corrosion of metallic
materials can be divided into three main categories (Bardal, 2003). First is wet corrosion,
whereby the corrosive environment is an aqueous solution with dissolved species. The
solution is considered as an electrolyte when the process is typically electrochemical. Se-
cond is corrosion in other fluids such as fused salts or molten metals. Lastly is dry corro-