Biomass is gaining increasing importance as a renewable energy source for the production of heat,
electricity and transport fuels. However, corrosion issues are numerous and include accelerated
wastage under ash and alkali salt deposits, erosion, and metal dusting in conjunction with
gasification.
This work focuses on deposit issues and is based on laboratory exposures for a total of 960 hours at
550ºC (1022ºF) and 700ºC (1292ºF) under deposits of 52.4 wt% KCl + 47.6 wt% K2SO4 in a nitrogenbased
gaseous atmosphere containing 15% H2O, 5%O2, 13%CO2 and 0.02%HCl.
The materials tested include carbon steel, low alloyed steels with 2%Cr or 9%Cr, the austenitic AISI
304 and the high temperature grade 253MA (21%Cr, 11%Ni, 1.6%Si, Ce). Metal loss data obtained
from metallographic evaluation show the corrosion rate to decrease in this order and illustrate how
materials substitution can permit an increase in process temperature. Examination of the reaction
interface underlines the importance of both chlorination and oxidation in the materials corrosion
process.