1220 L Street, Northwest

Washington, DC 20005-4070
202-682-8000

August 26, 2003

To: SUBCOMMITTEE ON CORROSION & MATERIALS

Re: Spring 2003 Meeting Minutes

Attached are the minutes from the April 14-16, 2003 meetings of the API Subcommittee on
Corrosion & Materials in Dallas, TX. The next meeting of the subcommittee will be held on
September 15-17, 2003, at the Adams Mark Hotel in Denver, CO. Further information on this
meeting can be obtained at www.api.org/events.

TABLE OF CONTENTS

I. Introduction/Registration of Member/Visitors .......................................................................1

II. Approval of Agenda and October 2, 2002 Joint Meeting Minutes.........................................2

III. Action Items Review; Old Business .......................................................................................2

IV. New Business..........................................................................................................................3

V. New Problems and Failure Analyses ......................................................................................3

VI. Task Group Reports ................................................................................................................5

VII. Liaison and Representative Reports........................................................................................6

VIII. Future Roundtables .................................................................................................................6

IX. Business Session .....................................................................................................................6

Best regards,

Roland A. Goodman
Standards Department
goodmanr@api.org

c: Subcommittee mailing list

An equal opportunity employer

 SUBCOMMITTEE ON CORROSION AND MATERIALS
Joint Meeting
April 16, 2003 Seattle, WA

SUBJECT ATTACHMENT

Agenda I

C & M Meeting Roster II

Officers Meeting III

Corrosion & Materials Research IV

Hydrogen Deterioration of Steels (RP941) V

TG on Manufacturers, Contractors & Designers (MCD) VI

Activities of Vessel Refractories Task Force VII

 1220 L Street, Northwest
Washington, DC 20005-4070
202-682-8000

Distribution Date:
August 26, 2003

Minutes
American Petroleum Institute
COMMITTEE ON REFINERY EQUIPMENT
SUBCOMMITTEE ON CORROSION & MATERIALS
Wednesday, April 16, 2003
Sheraton Seattle Hotel & Towers
Seattle, WA

E. H. Niccolls, Chairman
B. L. Jack, Vice-Chairman/Secretary

I. Members and visitors introduced themselves. Changes to the SCCM mailing list were
agreed upon as follows:

Delete the following names from the mailing list:

• Mr. Tom Farraro

• Mr. Anthony Ginnetti
• Mr. Paul Perry
• Mr. Richard Carroll
• Mr. Robert Courtney
• Mr. Emory Ford
• Mr. Doug Milton
• Mr. Verne Ragle
• Mr. John Watson

Make the following changes to the mailing and contact lists:

• For Mr. Brian Jack change e-mail address to Brian.L.Jack@conocophillips.com

• For Mr. Jay Cantwell change company affiliation to Equity Engineering
• For Mr. Walt Giesbrecht change fax # to 651 438 1791
• For Dr. Michael Cayard change company affiliation to Intercorr International Inc
change phone # area code to 281 and correct e-mail address to
mcayard@intercorr.com
• For Mr. Adel Nasr eliminate West from Company name & correct e-mail address to
adel.nasr@parsons.com
• For Mr. Anil Singh correct e-mail address to Anil.Singh@UOP.com
• Just above Mr. Saad Al-Dhafiri, change column header from Mailing List to Contact
List

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 • For Mr. Leigh Klein eliminate P.O. Box 8100 and replace with Cheery Point
Refinery, 4519 Grandview Rd and correct e-mail address to KleinLJ1@BP.com
• For Mr. Saad Al-Dhafiri eliminate Shuaiba and replace with Ahmadi
• For Mr. Waleed Al-Tolaibi eliminate Ahmadi and replace with Shuaiba

Add the following names to the contact list:

Mr. David Cooke

ChevronTexaco Energy Research & Technology Co.
100 Chevron Way
Richmond, CA 94802
Davecooke@chevrontexaco.com
Mr. Hearl Mead
Shell Global Solutions
Westhollow Technology Co
3333 Highway 6 South
Houston, TX 77082-3101
Hearl.mead@shell.com

Mr. Walter Britton

Shell Pressure Equipment Integrity
3655-36 Street N.W.
Calgary Alberta T2L 1Y8
Walter.britton@shell.ca

Mr. L. Louis Loushin

Technical Consultant
18627 Agile Pines Drive
Humble, TX
77346
lesloushin@aol.com

Mr. Ken Marden

Valero Wilmington Refinery
2402 East Anaheim St.
Wilmington, CA 90744
Keneth.Marden@Valero.com

II. The Agenda and the October 2, 2002 Meeting Minutes were approved.

III. Action Items Review, Old Business:

A. API to make the above changes to the SCCM Mailing & Contact Lists.
B. API to send out instructions with ballots as to how the ballot should be filled out and
who specifically should vote on a given ballot.

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 C. Adel Nasr to identify API standards & documents that reference MR0175. This
reference will eventually need to be updated to MR0103.

IV. New Business

A. The API website was again discussed and again comments were mostly very positive.
It was noted that when voting on ballots, one needs to fill out comments first, then
vote and submit (See API action item above).
B. The concept of combining NACE and SCCM meetings, or perhaps fall meetings, was
discussed and overall viewed favorably. Comments made included:
i. Will be a good way for those who attend both meetings to reduce travel.
ii. NACE has a pretty full schedule so might be hard to incorporate SCCM
meetings.
iii. Some organizations, like the Chemical Safety Board, already have an
expectation for NACE & API to work together on industry safety/ reliability
documents (e.g. CSB expects a work product from API & NACE on spent
H2SO4 Tanks as follow-up to the Motiva Delaware incident.)
iv. API is stronger than NACE at incorporating inspection issues into their
documents where NACE goes time based too much.

V. New Problems and Failure Analysis:

A. Localized Corrosion in FCC Depropanizer OVHD System: Dick Horvath of Shell

described an interesting localized corrosion problem in the condenser outlet piping of
a depropanizer OVHD system that was fortunately detected before a serious failure
occurred (good catch, near miss). A filming amine was being used for corrosion
control in the overhead system but did not protect the bottom half of horizontal runs
of pipe. In these horizontal pipe runs, a “river” of sour water condensate caused
significant localized corrosion. There were blue deposits (cyanides) at some of the
pooling areas and also some localized corrosion at welds. The filming amine was
most likely oil soluble, not water soluble, so provided no protection where complete
phase separation occurred.

B. Corrosion at Steam Tracing Contact Points to Amine Piping: Ned Niccolls of

ChevronTexaco described a corrosion failure in an amine service 1 “ level bridle
where steam tracing made metal-to-metal contact with the bridle. The service was a
rich DEA KO drum. The actual cause of corrosion is believed to be acid gas evolution
at contact points versus corrosion directly by amine. A similar incident was discussed
in detail by Shell in the Operating Practices Symposium. These two incidents
highlight the importance of good steam trace details in amine service (e.g. use stand-
offs for tracing to prevent contact points; don’t use tracing where you don’t need it
etc.).

C. Localized Corrosion of Welds in HF Alky Depropanizer System: Tim Munsterman

of Capstone reported unusual preferential weld corrosion in CS piping off the bottoms
of an HF alky depropanizer column, where only small quantities of HF acid were
reported to be present. The corrosion attacked only the weld metal, which leaked

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 during a chemical cleaning operation. Pipe on either side of the weld was unaffected.
Only RT or perhaps shear wave UT could have detected this corrosion. Post analysis
of some of the remaining corroded weld metal showed high levels of residual
elements (0.51% Ni plus Cu plus Cr). Other welds in the same system with lower
residuals of tramp elements showed much less corrosion. In some cases, only the root
passes of some other welds were corroded. A comment was made that tests have
showed E7018 electrodes to be more resistant to HF corrosion than E6010, which is
often used for root passes. The badly corroded weld had been in service for 20 years
so the long and the long-term corrosion rate, assuming uniform corrosion, was
estimated at 12 mpy.

D. Localized Nap Acid Corrosion of Select 5Cr Pipe Segments in Low TAN Service:
Tim Munsterman also reported on unusual pitting corrosion of select 5 Cr pipe
segments in a pump around line off a vacuum tower. The line operated at ~700F and
because of the fairly low TAN here of 0.7 and relatively low velocities, the corrosion
was originally thought to be from sulfidation. However, the corrosion appearance of
sharp edged scoops and pits that were pencil to half dollar size in diameter struck
most as characteristic of nap acid attack. A 5 Cr elbow near the corroded pipe
segment showed no corrosion, though being more likely a more turbulent location.
Some felt that higher chrome and silicon content in the elbow may have provided for
a more protective sulfide film and more protection from Nap acid attack. Walt
Giesbrecht of Flint Hill Resource Group commented that their experience has shown
differing corrosion patterns between 9 Cr and 5 Cr in TAN service. Walt has seen
more localized corrosion in 9 Cr (preferential attack near welds etc.) than he’s seen
with 5 Cr.

E. New Valve Body Leak During Hydrotest: Walk Giesbrecht (Flint Hill Resource)
cited a recent experience where a brand new 9 Cr valve body leaked when
hydrotested at the refinery just prior to its installation. The leak occurred at a crack in
a weld repair. An informal polling showed that some refineries still pressure test all
new valves prior to installation.

F. Rapid Sulfidation Corrosion of 2.25 Cr Furnace Tubes in NHT feedheater Service:

Leigh Klein of BP Cherry Point reported on rapidly accelerating corrosion rates in
2.25 Cr tubes in a naphtha hydrotreater furnace. The tubes had been corroding for
some time at 10-15 mpy and were slated for retube and upgrade to 9 Cr at an
upcoming T/A when they failed just 5 weeks before the T/A. To fail before the TA,
they figured the corrosion rate had recently jumped by a factor of 4, up to 40-60 mpy,
but didn’t yet understand why. They did have some coke and iron sulfide scale build
up in this heater that may have contributed to higher temperatures and corrosion rates.

G. Removing Steam Generator from Service Causes Severe Sulfidation of Downstream

CS Piping: BP also reported on a huge jump in corrosion rates for CS piping handling
hot resid downstream of a steam generator. Historical inspection had shown low
corrosion and the last inspection gave an estimated remaining life of 20 years.
However, the piping very quickly thinned to near failure when an upstream steam

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 generator was taken out of service. With the generator out of service, downstream
temperatures and sulfidation rates increased greatly.

H. Corrosion Failure in Low Flow Zones of Air Cooler in Coker Fractionator OVHD:
Brain Jack of ConocoPhillips reported on a corrosion failure in the corner, low flow,
tube of a Coker Fractionator OVHD fin-fan with inlet temperatures of ~330F and
outlet temperatures of ~200F. The fin-fan was 17 years old with no history of tube
failures or corrosion, though only visual inspections, and no eddy current or IRIS type
inspection had been done. Post failure IRIS inspections showed only the corner, or
low flow tubes to have some localized corrosion, which was most prevalent on the
bottom halves of the tubes. It was theorized that the low flow tubes condensed
stagnant water that had the potential to build up high concentrations of NH4HS.
However, initial dew point chloride corrosion wasn’t ruled out despite the fact this
Coker OVHD rarely shows any measurable chlorides in the OVHD receiver and,
when detectable, chlorides are only at 1-2 ppm.

VI. Task Group Reports:

A. Materials and Corrosion Research (Attachment IV)– RP 932 on REAC corrosion

going to publication in a few weeks. Presentations were made by Russ Kane on the
ethanol SCC white paper (see handout), and by B. Laskowski of Analatom on smart
chips. The Analatom presentation covered monitoring of process equipment using
chip sized sensors externally applied to the equipment using “scotch tape” type
adhesives. Sensors will be able to monitor LPR, strain, relative humidity and many
more variables with time. There was also a conference call with Randy John of Shell
Global Solutions to discuss their proposal for research on sulfidation corrosion (i.e.
the Asset project). See also handout. The SCCM 2003 budget is likely to be
reallocated to support this work.

B. Hydrogen Attack – RP941 (Attachment V) – API 941 to be re-balloted this summer.

Prager to submit the Technical Basis final draft to Niccolls and Koers for in-depth
review and provide executive summary discussion at next API meeting.

C. Conditions Causing Failure RP 571 – Ballot results good. One negative ballot
resolved and withdrawn. Some other minor comments, changes etc.. Ready for
publication after changes.

D. Duplex/9Cr Document (Attachment VI) – Meetings to be scheduled for both of these

RP’s at Fall 2003. Document # for 9 Cr will be 938B and document # for Duplex will
be 938C provided 9 Cr document comes out on or before Duplex document,
otherwise document #’s to be reversed.

E. Vessel Refractories & RP 936 (Attachment VII) – Resolved all issues on RP 936 and
re-balloting. Technical work continues in areas of thermal conductivity of
refractories, shortfalls of ASTM C704 erosion testing and standardization of vendor
heat transfer software tools. The good work of this group needs more recognition.

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VII. Liaison and Representative Reports:

Japan Petroleum Institute – The High Pressure Gas Institute of Japan (KHK) is
developing a safety management system along the lines of OSHA PSM, API 760, EPA
RMP etc. Draft is expected by May 2003. Last year, JPI issued the first version of a post
construction RP for refinery piping & vessels. This document covers inspection
procedures, materials and damage mechanisms.

VIII. Future Roundtables:

A. Fall 2003 – Topics were discussed and voted on. The one selected for Fall 2003 is:
FCC Plant Fixed Equipment Reliability: (Refractory, Catalyst withdrawal lines, high
temperature piping) – Hearl Mead and Gerritt Buchheim agreed to organize, with
help from JM, Laurie, and CAS.

Other topics discussed for roundtables were (evergreen list of all ideas):

B. 300 Series SS Piping issues: Cracking, inspection, Fitness-for-Service, painting,

stress-relief, hydrotest, MTRs, PWHT, etc. (Note: This is a topic for an upcoming
State-of-the-Art Session at NACE)

C. Computational Fluid Dynamics (also a high priority candidate)

D. Wet H2S cracking especially current approaches to managing the issue.

E. Managing “Critical Process Variables” to avoid corrosion/ metallurgical damage to

include process creep, MOC’s etc.

F. Updated roundtable on 2.25 Cr fabrication issues. Anil Singh mentioned cracking of a

2.25 Cr nozzle from an ISR where “things were done right” but it still cracked.

IX. Business Session

A. All TG reports were approved.

B. Budget Forecast.

The budget forecast discussed by the subcommittee and endorsed by the CRE is as
follows:

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 2003 2004
Research Project 2003 Realloc. Per CRE 2005 2006
Advanced V steels (MPC Deliver.) 25 0
MPC Specific Deliverables 20 0
Ethanol Stress Corrosion Crkng 50 50 50
MPC General Support 10 a 5a 10a 10a 10a
Sulfidation: Asset Research 45 45 45
Sulfidation: Industry Guidelines 20 30
Computational Fluid Dynamics 30
Undefined C&M Research 30 80

Totals 105 100 95 95 110

a
To be determined

C. Other Business

Preliminary Schedule for the Fall 2003 C&M Subcommittee Mtg.

(Modified some after the Spring 2003 Meeting)

Sun Mon Tues Wed

AM Breakfast Recognition’s Officers Meeting Joint Meeting
7:00am – 8:30am C&M/MC&D
8:00am-12:00pm
Task Group on H2 Task Force on
Deterioration of Steels Vessel Refractories
(RP941) 8:30am – 12:30pm
8:30am – 12:30pm
9 Cr MCD Meeting 8:30 –
12:30
Refractories TF Duplex MCD
8:30am – 12:30 p.m. Meeting
8:30 am – 12:30 p.m.
LUNCH
PM Task Force Corrosion & FCC/ Refractory C&M Business
Mat’ls Research Roundtable Meeting
1:30pm – 5:30pm 1:30pm – 5:00pm 12:30pm – 2:00pm
Ethanol SCC
Steering
Committee?
Refractories TF RP 932 REAC HTHA In-depth
1:30 pm-5:00pm “Check in” Technical Basis
5:00 p.m. – 6:00 p.m. Discussion
2:00 p.m.- 5:00
p.m.

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