Abstract

CO2-enhanced oil recovery (EOR) from captured carbon, has been a research hotspot stemming to provide an economical and effective method for the reduction of carbon emissions in our atmosphere. However, corrosion is a challenging issue in the whole chain process of CO2-EOR production utilizing a mild steel pipeline with water running through it. In this research, the corrosion risk of pipeline at different stages of CO 2-EOR production is thoroughly assessed based on a detailed analysis of the activities going on in the pipeline as well as the characteristics of the fluid in motion. According to the fluid state of CO2, water and crude oil, current understandings on the corrosion behavior of steel materials in multiphase flow conditions are reviewed. Furthermore, the intermittent water wetting phenomena and the fluid behaviour of water droplets or clusters in an electrolyte/non-electrolyte emulsion are correlated with the steel corrosion performance, providing new insights into the corrosion phenomena. Besides application of corrosion resistant materials and corrosion inhibitors, tailoring of processing parameters, such as enhancing the water entrainment, shortening the water contact time, and reducing the solution corrosively, is highly recommended as an effective method for corrosion controlling high CO2-EOR production conditions.