ABSTRACT
Corrosion is a huge economic and environmental issue the oil and gas industry has faced for years. With the advancements in the process technologies, there has been an ever increasing need to look into superior performing materials to meet the expectations of longevity for process equipment and structures in corrosive applications. It is typical in the corrosion industry to utilize high cost metal alloys or use various coating technologies to extend the design service life of the metallic structure in the corrosive environment. Glass fiber reinforced polymer (GFRP) composite materials serve as a low cost alternative to these expensive alloys and also provide superior corrosion performance. This paper provides a comparative review of corrosion and cost performance of Stainless Steel (SS) UNS- S30400, 31600 and Advantex-FRP† (termed as E-CR-FRP in the paper) composite. Based on this analysis E-CR-FRP provides higher design life (20 years for E-CR-FRP over 3 years for SS alloys in Hydrochloric Acid) and huge cost savings in corrosive environments over SS.
