Progress in the development of sour corrosion inhibitors: Past, present, and future perspectives

Metallic pipelines and gathering tanks play a vital role during oil and gas exploration, production, transmission, and processing. These facilities are usually attacked by corrosion. The use of corrosion inhibitors is one of the most economical and reliable approaches to control the corrosion of oil and gas metallic facilities. This paper looks at the progress made in the development of sour corrosion inhibitors from early 1900 to date. Scientific literatures were reviewed. The review identified four classes of organic corrosion inhibitors for sour environments, namely, amine-based, imidazoline-based, polymer-based, and Gemini-surfactant-based inhibitors. The strengths and weaknesses of these inhibitors were highlighted. The review revealed that the patronage of amine-based chemistries has declined, and the current technology is based on imidazoline and quaternary salt chemistries. The existing knowledge gap and the future research direction in the area of sour corrosion inhibitors development have been highlighted.