Development of Antifouling and Corrosion Resistant Coatings for Petrochemical Compressors

Two coatings have been developed for petrochemical compressor antifouling and corrosion resistance purposes. One is a multilayer composite coating with a modified polytetrafluoroethylene (PTFE) impregnated organic topcoat, which gives it superior antifouling performance to the similar coating that has been used by the compressor original equipment manufacturers (OEMs). The other is a high-phosphorous electroless nickel plating, which has been widely used as a corrosion resistant coating, but newly been employed by the authors’ companies for antifouling purpose. Both coatings have demonstrated excellent antifouling performance, while the electroless nickel has shown to be much more forgiving to the washing and cleaning injections that have caused erosion damage and chemical attack to the composite coating. Therefore, the electroless nickel is considered as a very attractive alternative coating to the PTFE impregnated composite coating system, especially in such cases where the oil washing, water cooling, and/or chemical cleaning injections have to be carried on in the process.