Fundamental Research

Understanding mineral deposit formation in heat exchangers to reduce corrosion risks

Geothermal fluids can be highly damaging even for supposedly resistant metal alloys. Whether it involves uniform corrosion or stress corrosion cracking, the phenomenon can be even more severe in the event of mineral deposit formation, which has the added disadvantage of reducing the thermal efficiency of the equipment affected. In order to gain a better understanding of these risks, research teams from IFPEN, INSA-Lyon, Mines de Saint-Etienne and the French Corrosion Institute have joined forces to conduct the GeoSteelCor project. Methodologies have been developed to control mineral deposit formation on metallic surfaces, in laboratory conditions, as well as more realistically in a high-pressure and high-temperature corrosion test loop. These methodologies have also been used to study the impact of mineral deposits on stress corrosion cracking.