The Effect of Enhanced Oil Recovery (EOR) Surfactant on Pipeline Corrosion in CO2 Environment

The effect of Enhanced Oil Recovery (EOR) surfactant on the pipeline corrosion in CO2 environment is not clear although the usage of EOR surfactant becoming more popular.
The objective of the project is to evaluate the characteristics of EOR surfactant towards corrosion behavior in CO2 environment. The characteristic of the commercial EOR
surfactant used in this project was investigated using FTIR and the corrosion behavior was analyzed by electrochemical Linear Polarization Resistance (LPR) technique by
varying the concentration of EOR surfactant from 50 to 5000 ppm. The surface morphology was examined by Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM) and Energy Dispersive X-ray (EDX). In general, the additional of EOR surfactant reduces the
corrosion rate in range of 70% to 97% depending on the concentration of EOR surfactant. The highest reduction of 97% was achieved with the additional of 5000 ppm
and reducing the corrosion rate from 1.86 mm/year to 0.06 mm/year. Based on the results, the additional of EOR surfactant react with the sample surface similar to
corrosion inhibitor as shown by SEM images. In conclusion, the EOR surfactant behaves similar to corrosion inhibitor and able to reduce effectively the corrosion rate
of the pipeline in CO2 environment.