The pharmaceutical industry has for a long time been troubled by red-brown to dark violet deposits in distillation columns, storage vessels and distribution systems for water for injection (WFI), hot purified water, and clean steam. This phenomenon is known as rouging due to the visual appearance of the deposits that basically are stainless steel corrosion products. The affected installations are mostly fabricated from the austenitic stainless steel grade AISI 316L. The exact mechanism for rouge formation is not fully understood. However, it is widely reported that the phenomenon is caused by localized corrosion. On this basis an experimental laboratory technique was established to study the parameters that affect rouging. By exposing large areas of partly submerged stainless steel coupons in boiling water for 6 weeks, rouging was reproduced in the laboratory. The obtained results showed a strong influence of the applied gas atmosphere and the coupon surface quality (finish), whereas the significance of different steel grades was questionable. None of the exposed coupons showed visible signs of localized corrosion, which suggests that rouging is a result of passive film dissolution and re-precipitation of iron rich deposits. The results from the study are correlated with examples of rouge experienced in WFI plants in the pharmaceutical industry.
Keywords: WFI, rouging, AISI 316L, EN 1.4435, EN 1.4462, EN 1.4539, gas atmosphere, welding, surface finish