Study of a Corrosion Inhibitor in Acid Medium

Abstract

Acid treatment in oil wells is  one of  the most corrosive technologic process  for metallic installations, since it involves concentrated acid solutions, high temperature  under long exposure periods amongst others. It is imperative the use of corrosion control methods, being the most adequate and common the use  and addition of inhibitors in  the acid environment,  the world over. Nevertheless, in most of these
products the corrosion protection diminishes as a function of time, therefore there  are just a  few that satisfy  the  action  conditions  needed  to  be  used  under  these  corrosion  conditions  and  its  cost  are increased in  the  world market.  Cuba  has no products  that satisfy  this  composition  and application standards  and  the  chemical  composition  of  the  imported  international  products  is  unknown.  The objective of the present work was to study a commercial inhibitor a highly used oil well acid treatment inhibitor,  which  enabled  to compare  with  a  further  development  of  a  national inhibitor  product development of a similar efficiency but with a lower cost. Analytical techniques were used to identify structure and composition previously fractionally separated, as well as electrochemical evaluation for the inhibitor performance  and efficiency. It  was demonstrated that  the active component rest in the residual  by-product obtained, behaving in a similar  way to  the original product, a typical behaviour observed for  the mix adsorption reaction inhibitors, recommended for acid media. Part of his work was made in the Electric Research Institute in Mexico with a research scholarship given by the Mexican Foreign  Relations  Secretary.