Study of the corrosion resistance of austenitic stainless steels during conversion of waste to biofuel

The paper deals with the corrosion behavior of stainless steels as candidate materials for biofuel production plants by liquefaction process of the sorted organic fraction of municipal solid waste. Corrosion tests were carried out on AISI 316L and AISI 304L stainless steels at 250 °C in a batch reactor during conversion of raw material to bio-oil (biofuel precursor), by exposing specimens either to water/oil phase or humid gas phase. General corrosion rate was measured by weight loss tests. The susceptibility to stress corrosion cracking was evaluated by means of U-bend specimens and slow stress rate tests at 10-6 or 10-5 s-1 strain rate. After tests, scanning electron microscope analysis was carried out to detect cracks and localized attacks. The results are discussed in relation with exposure conditions. They show very low corrosion rates strictly dependent upon time and temperature. No stress corrosion cracking was observed on U-bend specimens, under constant loading. Small cracks confined in the necking cone of specimens prove that stress corrosion cracking only occurred during slow strain rate tests at stresses exceeding the yield strength.