Corrosion Performance Analysis of Tubing Materials with Different Cr Contents in the CO2 Flooding Injection–Production Environment

In order to clarify the difference in corrosion performance between low Cr-containing (3Cr, 5Cr, and 9Cr) tubing material and carbon steel N80 in the Carbon dioxide (CO2) flooding injection and production environment and the range of adaptation, corrosion tests and analysis were carried out in simulated working conditions. In this paper, the electrochemical potentiodynamic testing technology and the weight loss method were used to comparatively analyze the corrosion performance and variation law of three types of tubing materials with different Cr contents in a simulated CO2 flooding-produced water environment under different partial pressure conditions. Additionally, scanning electron microscopy and Energy Dispersive Spectrometer (EDS) analysis were conducted to examine the surface corrosion morphology characteristics and elemental composition of material films under various conditions. The results indicate that the open circuit potentials of 3Cr, 5Cr, and carbon steel N80 were similar under the same experimental conditions. However, the open circuit potentials of 9Cr were relatively high and there was an obvious passivation zone in anodic polarization. Nevertheless, compared to that of 13Cr, the passivation state was unstable, and pitting corrosion continued to expand once it formed. This demonstrates that the corrosion resistance of the material can be effectively enhanced and a stable passivation state can be achieved in the anodic polarization region when the Cr content of the material reaches at least 13%. The service life of materials can be predicted based on their corrosion rate under high temperature and pressure simulation environments. We found that 9Cr materials exhibited good adaptability while 3Cr and 5Cr materials showed poor adaptability. Therefore, it was not recommended to use 3Cr and 5Cr materials. Therefore, 3Cr, 5Cr, and N80 materials will be used at lower partial pressure levels of CO2 (<0.2 MPa).