Parametric Evaluation of Naphthenic Acid and Sulfidic Corrosions Under High Temperature High Velocity (HTHV) Conditions (C2026-00451)
Tuesday, March 17, 2026
8:30 AM - 9:00 AM Central
Location: 342 DE
Earn .5 PDH
Interested in reading the entire paper? Click on the "Paper" button below to read on the AMPP Knowledge Hub!
*Please note, if your registration came with access to the conference proceedings don't forget to login to your AMPP Knowledge Hub account to access the paper for free. If you login and don't have access to the paper, you can purchase the individual paper or purchase the entire conference proceedings on your Knowledge Hub account.
Predicting the corrosivity of crude oil remains a critical challenging aspect of refinery operations, directly impacting feedstock purchase decisions and the assessment of process equipment serviceability. This paper covers some results of a comprehensive Joint Industry Project designed to quantify the effects of crude oil chemistry on naphthenic acid corrosion (NAC) under realistic refinery conditions. Systematic high temperature high velocity testing incorporated controlled variations in temperature, wall shear stress, total acid number, and active sulfur content. In this paper, it investigated the interaction of naphthenic acid and sulfidic corrosion under high temperature high velocity conditions, generating data across wall shear stresses (WSS) from 200–1000 Pa, temperatures of 600–700 °F, and total acid numbers (TAN) of 1–5.5 mg KOH/g. Using the hot oil flow loop, tests were performed with naphthenic acid in mineral oil to replicate low, medium, and high H2S environments. Results revealed critical WSS thresholds for NAC and sulfidic corrosion, dependent on TAN, temperature, and alloy composition. NAC corrosion rates showed no WSS dependence below a critical limit, but increased above it, with distinct behaviors at low vs. high TAN. Sulfidic corrosion exhibited breakaway behavior above a critical WSS, with depending on alloys showed reduced sensitivity.
