Corrosion of Nickel in Steam Condensate Containing Air and Carbondioxide

Abstract

Nickel possesses considerable resistance to corrosion both in steam of pure steam condensate and strong caustic soda solutions. As such it is largely used for the constr-uction of various components of caustic soda evaporator. However frequent failure of nickel tubes in the steam side of the steam chest is observed in practice. The present paper gives the results obtained from studies on effect of mixtures of carbon dioxide and air in water in different proportions, both at room temperature and high temp-erature, to ascertain the causes of corrosion. From the results of the tests it was possible to ascertain the conditions under which the steam condensate becomes corrosive towards nickel.