Corrosion behaviour of X52 steel in the presence of sulphite

Purpose The objective of this work was to study the corrosion behaviour of X52 steel in the presence of sulphite. Design/methodology/approach The study was conducted in a solution containing abiotic sulphate reducing bacteria (SRB) metabolic species. Electrochemical techniques i.e. LPR, potentiodynamic and EIS were used to observe the corrosion kinetics and mechanism of X52 steel in the solution containing sulphite. FESEM and XPS were employed to characterize the corrosion products. Findings LPR and EIS results showed that the addition of sulphite ions increased the rate of X52 steel corrosion. The increase of corrosion rate was due to the increase in the cathodic reaction in the presence of sulphite. It was observed also that sulphite thinned the protective FeS film and caused corrosive species to adsorb on the surface resulting in an increase in corrosion rate. Originality/value This paper discusses the effects of sulphite on the corrosion behaviour of X52 steel in a solution containing SRB metabolic species. Irrespective of the presence of sulphide, sulphite is produced by SRB during their metabolic process. However, as far as is known, no published papers are available that discuss the effect of the presence of sulphite as one of the metabolic products of SRB.