Hydrogen Isotopes Permeation in Clean or Unoxidized FeCrAl Alloys: A Review

The US Department of Energy is working with fuel vendors to develop accident tolerant fuels (ATF) for the current fleet of light water reactors (LWRs). The ATF should be more resilient to loss of coolant accident scenarios and help extending the life of the operating LWRs. One of the proposed ATF concepts is to use iron-chromium-aluminum (FeCrAl) alloys for the cladding of the fuel. A concern in using ferritic FeCrAl is that this type of cladding may result in an increase in the concentration of tritium in the coolant. The objective of the current critical review is to collect and assess information from the literature regarding diffusion or permeation of hydrogen (H) and its isotopes deuterium (D) and Tritium (T) across industrial alloys (including FeCrAl) used or intended for the nuclear industry. Over a hundred years of data reviewed shows that the solubility of hydrogen in ferritic alloys is lower than in austenitic alloys but hydrogen permeates faster through a ferritic material than through austenitic materials. The tritium permeation rates in FeCrAl alloys are between those in austenitic stainless steels and in ferritic FeCr steels. The activation energy for hydrogen permeation is approximately 30 pct higher in the austenitic alloys compared with the ferritic (typically ∼ 50 kJ/mol in ferritic vs. ∼ 65 kJ/mol in the austenitic). None of the major elements in FeCrAl alloys react with hydrogen to form detrimental hydride phases. The effect of surface oxides on FeCrAl delaying hydrogen entrance into FeCrAl alloy is not part of this review.

Effect of Varying H2S Content on High-Temperature Corrosion of Ferritic and Austenitic Alloys in a Simulated Pyrolysis Process of Post-Consumer Plastics

The alloys K90941 and N08811 were tested under conditions simulating a pyrolysis process of post-consumer plastics. Impurities in the plastic feedstock like chlorine containing materials or organic components yield HCl and H2S respectively during the cracking process. The reactor material must be able to withstand these harsh corrosive conditions.In lab-scale test equipment, process conditions of the reactor zone of the pyrolysis process were simulated at temperatures of 420 °C and 580 °C for 72 h. The gas atmosphere consisted of either 200 ppm or 20000 ppm H2S and 3.8 vol% HCl, 1.9 vol% CO2, 0.3 vol% CO, 2.8 vol% H2, bal. N2. After the corrosion experiments, the samples were analyzed by metallography, SEM/EDX, and XRD. Additionally, the mass loss was evaluated. Results show that the ferritic K90941 is more aggressively attacked than the austenitic N08811 and that for both materials the mass loss rises with increasing H2S content in the gas atmosphere and increasing temperature.

Carburization effect of Austenitic alloys with various Cr and Al additions under the methane/hydrogen atmosphere on the corrosion behaviors of steels

The corrosion behaviors of six Fe-19Ni-13/21Cr-xAl (x = 0, 2, 6 at. %) alloys in 10% CH4/H2 at 800oC were investigated. 2 at. % Al did not affect the corrosion resistance obviously, while 6 at. % Al reduced the carbon attack completely for Fe-19Ni-13Cr-6Al but was still insufficient to form protective alumina scales for alloys with 21 at. % Cr. An increase of Cr content changed the appearance of the internal carburization zone under the optical microscope. Stability diagrams of M-C-O system（M= Cr, Fe）were established to estimate the diffusion paths of carbon in the alloys.