Severe wet H2S service

Severity of Wet H2S service depends on the H2S content and pH of water in contact with the
metal. During unit engineering, stream composition is provided by the process department.
This
data is the basis for determining the service severity. However this data may not be fully
available
and unusual or transient operations are often not considered. So any choice in H2S severity
service
has to be confirmed by a specialist during the material selection review to take into account
these
cases and company feed-back.
pH H2S ppm
10<H2S<50 50=H2S=2 000 2000<H2S=10000 H2S>10000
pH<5 Low High High High
5=pH=7.8 Low Moderate* Moderate* High
pH>7.8 Low* Moderate* High High
* High severity if CN- (cyanide) > 20ppm
When exposure to severe wet H2S service does not happen during normal operation but
happens
during upset or transient operation, it is considered that only SSC may occur and the service
is
considered as moderate.
2.2 Specification for plates
Carbon steel is commonly used in low, moderate and severe wet H2S service, with a 3 or 6
mm
corrosion allowance. In this case, steel components (plates, forged parts) and welding are
subject to
stringent specifications.
For specific cases, when the environment is judged to be very corrosive, an internal liner
made of a
corrosion resistant alloy may also be used (cladded plates or weldoverlay). In this case, there
is no
specific requirement for the carbon steel base metal due to wet H2S service.
The objective of these specifications is to:
reduce the hardness, by limiting residuals elements leading to high hardness phase
formation, and limiting the steel tensile stress,
reduce susceptibility to HIC by limiting sulfur and by acting on the inclusion shape,
limiting crack propagation by a low phosphorus and segregating element content.
All carbon steel materials shall be delivered fully killed and normalized.
The steel plates shall be fabricated from unalloyed carbon steels produced by an electric arc
furnace or oxygen furnace process. The steel shall be vacuum degassed, deoxidized and
produced
to a fine grain structure, with a process leading low sulphur and phosphorus content.
Steel shall be produced with thorough desulphurization, dephosphorization and deoxidizing
treatments. Calcium treatment shall be applied for inclusion shape control, except that it need
not
be applied to plate with very low sulphur levels (below 0.002 %). The calcium content shall
not
exceed 3 times the sulphur content