Corrosion inhibitors and additives for hot potassium carbonate CO₂ removal systems.
Benfield and related hot potassium carbonate processes strip carbon dioxide from gas streams — ammonia syngas, natural gas, hydrogen plants — by absorbing it into hot potassium carbonate solution and releasing it again in a regenerator.
The conditions that make the process efficient also make it aggressive: hot, alkaline, carbonate-rich solution attacks carbon steel. Vanadium-based inhibitors form a protective oxide layer on the steel surface, which is what allows these units to be built in carbon steel rather than exotic alloys.
Inhibitor concentration has to be held within a working band. Too little and corrosion resumes; too much is wasted and complicates solution chemistry. Riverside supplies both the inhibitor and the additive chemistry these systems run on.
Vanadium is the corrosion inhibitor, not the absorbent. It passivates carbon steel surfaces so hot, CO₂-loaded carbonate solution can be handled in conventional metallurgy.