Protection of Carbon Steel against Hot Corrosion Using Thermal Spray Si- and Cr-Base Coatings

Abstract

A Fe75Si thermal spray coating was applied on the surface of a plain carbon steel baffle plate. Beneath this coating, a Ni20Cr coating was applied to give better adherence to the silicon coating. The baffle was installed in the high-temperature, fireside, corrosion zone of a steam generator. At the same time, an uncoated 304 stainless steel baffle was installed nearby for comparison. For 13 months the boiler burned heavy fuel oil with high contents of vanadium. The samples were studied employing scanning electron microscopy, x-ray microanalysis, and x-ray diffraction techniques. After that, it was possible to inspect the structural state of the components, and it was found that the stainless steel baffle plates were destroyed almost completely by corrosion, whereas the carbon steel coated baffle plate did not suffer a significant attack, showing that the performance of the thermal spray coating was outstanding and that the coating was not attacked by vanadium salts of the molten slag.