Internal Bore Coatings for Applications in Corrosion and Hydrogen Environment

In this section

Back to Core Research Programme AMorph – 4D Printing for Field Morphing Structures Automation of Composite and Hybrid Joining Process Coaxial Wire Additive Manufacturing Processes and In-Line Monitoring Tools Development of Coded Excitation Technique for Non-Metallic Pipes Inspection Development of Digital Twin technology as a demonstrator for real-time integrity assessment of crack growth in tensile specimens Development of Friction Stir Welding (FSW) for Hydrogen Fuel Storage Tanks Development of Leak-Before-Break Hydrogen Storage Composite Pressure Vessels With Polymeric Liner Establishing Assessment Methods for Determining Safe Service Limits of High-Temperature Materials in Extreme Environments Fracture toughness in aggressive environments: effect of crack monitoring techniques on test results In-process detection and non-destructive testing of electron beam weld imperfections Internal Bore Coatings for Applications in Corrosion and Hydrogen Environment Joining of Additively Manufactured Materials Long term behaviour of polymeric liner materials/coatings in hydrogen service Techniques for High Temperature Ultrasonic Inspection of Arc Welding Ultimate Leverage Fund

Project Code: 35283

Start date and planned duration: January 2023, 36 months

Objective

To build internal bore coating capability for coatings in applications in corrosion and hydrogen environment
To optimize internal coating processing parameters
To create a standard characterization methods to access internal coating quality/performance

Project Outline

The WPs of the CRP will be firstly understand and communicate to industry to define two components for coatings (ideally one for corrosion resistance, and one in hydrogen environment), then the commission of EHLA and internal bore coating head. Afterwards perform trials and optimize the processing parameters for the two coatings. Then the coatings will be characterized (e.g. optical, SEM, hardness testing) and tested (e.g. corrosion, hydrogen embrittlement), with eventually two demonstration parts being manufactured.

Industry Sectors

- Power Generation and Energy

- Oil and Gas

Benefits to Industry

In the oil and gas industry, an internal bore coating is usually applied to components (e.g. hydraulics, oil and gas pipeline) to provide corrosion resistance. This is commonly achieved through arc or plasma techniques (TIG, MIG and PTA), alongside laser cladding. However, there are a number of challenges associated with these techniques due to the confined space including; heat build-up, a need for miniaturised optics, limited cooling capacity and excess powder retention and coating build up. Therefore, there is a need to find an alternative solution.

In addition, with the ever-increasing need to shift to renewable and green energy sources, and align with the global political drive to reach net zero by 2050, more and more oil and gas industries are trying to convert their existing infrastructure to accommodate for hydrogen production, storage and transportation. One obvious challenge to that is to solve the hydrogen embrittlement issue in those metal components (e.g. existing gas pipelines, storage tanks), as they will now be exposed in hydrogen environment. A promising and cost-effective solution to that is to apply an internal coating to the metallic components to provide protection under hydrogen environment.

Internal coating by extreme high-speed laser applications (EHLA) is proposed in this project as a way to realise the internal coating for applications in corrosion and hydrogen environment due to the benefits of:

Extreme high speed deposition (10-500X faster compared to conventional internal laser cladding)
Metallic bonding between substrate the coating
Low heat input to the substrate and smaller heat affected zone
Uniform thin coatings (~ 50μm or thicker as required for function)
High powder efficiency
Versatile route for exploitation (hard-chrome replacement) and adaptation (robot & repair)
Multi-material and environmentally-friendly material choices as coatings

If proven successful, the EHLA coating internal bore technology could offer oil and gas industry a game changing solution for their current pipelines and also prepare them for a transition and change into hydrogen transportation and storage in the near future.