Study of stability of Al2O3-Y2O3-ZrO2 composite ceramics in crude petroleum environment for inert coating applications in petroleum industry
Júlia Oliveira Pontual1; Ricardo Artur Sanguinetti Ferreira1; Noelle D'Emery Gomes Silva1; Yogendra Prasad Yadava1
1 Universidade Federal de Pernambuco
doi:10.20906/CPS/COB-2015-1738
Resumo
Discovery of Brazilian pre-salt petroleum reservoir has created an intense demand for new materials capable of withstanding direct contact with the crude petroleum. Petroleum drilling equipments, storage tanks and transportation systems suffer from constant physical stress caused by chemical attack of crude petroleum on its structure. Ceramics are materials with high chemical stability in hostile environment and therefore can be used as an inert coating material as an alternative to resolve such problems. However, ceramics are highly fragile in nature. Because they are mostly formed by ionic bonds and / or covalent bonds, which provide a limited number of independent slip systems necessary to achieve a homogeneous plastic deformation. To date, ceramics based on alumina are most widely used in practice where there is demand for high strength and high toughness and its intrinsic fragility is still a fatal factor. To reduce vulnerability and increase strength and toughness usually the ceramics are reinforced with incorporation of one or more ceramic additives. Mechanical properties of alumina based ceramics improved considerably with the addition of TiO2, TiN, ZrO2 etc. as reinforcement additives. In the present work we have produced Al2O3-Y2O3-ZrO2 composites ceramics in proportions of 5-20 wt% ZrO2 and 2% wt% Y2O3 with high mechanical strength, through thermo-mechanical processing and sintering techniques. To evaluate the quality of materials developed and the possibility of using them as inert protective coatings or ceramic components for crude petroleum extraction, storage and transportation systems, we have studied the physic-chemical and mechanical stability of these materials in crude petroleum originated from onshore and offshore petroleum wells of Sergipe region of Brazil. Al2O3-Y2O3-ZrO2 composite ceramics were produced through thermo-mechanical processing and sintering techniques. Structural, microstructural and mechanical tests showed that composite ceramics with 15-20wt% ZrO2 composite ceramics with 2
Palavras-chave: Al2O3-Y2O3-ZrO2 ; Stabily in crude petroleum; Inert coating; Petrolium industry