A study of hydroxyethyl imidazoline as H2S corrosion inhibitor using electrochemical noise and electrochemical impedance spectroscopy

A study of H₂S corrosion inhibition of pipeline steel by hydroxyethyl imidazoline has been carried out by using electrochemical techniques. Inhibitor concentration included 5, 10, 25, 50, and 100 ppm in a H₂S-containing 3% NaCl solution at 50 °C. Techniques included linear polarization resistance (LPR), electrochemical impedance spectroscopy (EIS), and electrochemical noise (EN) measurements. In addition to the traditional noise in voltage and current, noise resistance (R _n) measurements were used. All techniques showed that the most efficient inhibitor concentration was between 5 and 10 ppm, but inhibitor efficiency decreased after 8 h of testing. Furthermore, EN measurements showed that steel was highly susceptible to localized corrosion at inhibitor doses lower than 10 ppm due to the establishment of a porous inhibitor film. However, with 50 or 100 ppm of inhibitor, the steel was susceptible to a mixture of uniform and localized corrosion. Hurst exponent was higher in presence of inhibitor for times shorter than 8 h, indicating a short residence time of the inhibitor. The data could not be fitted to any adsorption isotherm model, indicating a lack of strong adsorption of the inhibitor to the metal surface.