A wide range of liquid, gas, and solid service environments are found in the chemical process industry (CPI) ranging from water to strong acids or bases or a multitude or organic compounds at temperatures from ambient to 2300 º F (1260 ºC). Many severe environments which cause failures of nonmetallic materials or stainless steels can be contained by a nickel alloy. Typical fields of application are sulphuric acid, phosphoric acid and hydrochloric acid services. In many inorganic and organic chemical processes nickel alloys are used for the more extreme conditions where general corrosion, pitting or SCC cause failure or the traditional stainless steels. In most aqueous applications, material strength is a much less important consideration than corrosion resistance. Therefore nickel base alloys are often used in high temperature applications above about 1000ºF (540ºC) when high temperature strength, creep resistance, and oxidation resistance is needed. The following papers discuss alloy selection for a range of chemical processes. |
