J Fail. Anal. and Preven.

(2007) 7:187–191
DOI 10.1007/s11668-007-9037-1

C Æ A Æ S Æ E H Æ I Æ S Æ T Æ O Æ R Æ Y

Corrosion Failure in the Sugar Industry: A Case Study

B. K. Panigrahi Æ S. Srikanth Æ J. Singh

Submitted: 14 March 2007 / in revised form: 23 May 2007 / Published online: 20 June 2007

ASM International 2007

Abstract Pitting corrosion of structural steel used in an allowed to settle in a clarifier for 2 h before it is taken to an
evaporator vessel for the sugar industry has been investi- evaporator for concentration. The evaporator vessel con-
gated. A significant number of inclusion stringers and a sists essentially of a tubular ‘‘calendria’’ serving as a heat
banded microstructure in the ordinary mild steel used were exchanger (Fig. 1). The heating system surrounds the
main reasons the pitting initiated. A low-carbon (0.08% C outside of the tubes. The cylindrical body terminates at the
max) copper-bearing structural steel processed by a mod- top in a ‘‘save all,’’ the objective of which is to separate
ified rolling practice that included intensive cross rolling the liquid droplets that may be entrapped in the vapor from
was developed to minimize the incidence of pitting in such the juice. In the evaporator, water is removed from the cane
vessels. juice. The evaporation is done in two stages: (i) concen-
tration of cane juice and (ii) separation of sugar crystals
Keywords Pitting corrosion
Sugar plant
Structural from concentrated juice. The first stage is done in a mul-
steel
Cross rolling
Microstructure tiple-effect evaporator for improved thermal economy, and
the second is performed in single-effect vessels (vacuum
pan). This paper discusses factors that caused premature
Introduction failure of multiple-effect evaporator vessels and the
processing of an improved steel that has been used to
Structural steel (ASTM A 36) is the basic material for minimize the corrosion.
construction for a wide variety of equipment vessels used
in the sugar industry, and corrosion of such equipment is a
major problem. For example, the evaporator is subjected to Materials and Methods
corrosion, mainly by pitting, due to presence of SO2, NH3,
and mild acid (pH ~5) during processing of cane sugar [1]. Corroded steel plate samples were procured from the
The corrosion occurs in the base steel as well as in the evaporator at the location marked in Fig. 1. The initial
vicinity of fabrication welds. Cane juice is a complex thickness of the steel plate was 12 mm. A 100 · 100 mm
mixture of organic acids, inorganic salts, suspended soil, plate was cut from corroded region for investigation.
and fiber [2]. The juice is also treated with antibacterial Chemical analysis of plate was performed in an optical
agents, and to remove various impurities from juice it is emission spectrometer. For optical microscopy, small pie-
treated with lime. The treatment with lime makes the juice ces were cut from the corroded plate and mounted on edge
alkaline, and the juice is then neutralized by passing SO2 in curing epoxy at moderate temperature. The mounted
gas through it at 70 to 80 C. The sulfited juice is then cross sections were mechanically ground and polished
under water with successively finer grits. The final
polishing was done with alumina paste. The polished
B. K. Panigrahi (&)
S. Srikanth
J. Singh
specimens were etched in 2% nital to reveal grain size,
R&D Center for Iron and Steel, Steel Authority of India Limited,
Ranchi 834002, India nature, and location of pits with respect to inclusions and
e-mail: [email protected] microstructural phases. The morphology of inclusions was

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188 J Fail. Anal. and Preven. (2007) 7:187–191

Fig. 1 Location of sample of corroded plate in evaporator

also studied on as-polished specimens. The surface

topography of corroded plate was studied in a scanning
electron microscope (SEM) at 20 keV using 10 · 10 mm
specimen. Electron probe microanalysis (EPMA) was done
in a microanalyzer fitted with a wavelength dispersive
spectrometer (WDS) at 15 keV to determine the elemental
distribution of carbon, manganese, silicon, and oxygen in
the corroded steel.
A commercial heat was made with small amount of copper
in an open hearth furnace (OHF). The molten steel was cast as
ingots weighing 12.5 T each and rolled to slabs 180 mm Fig. 2 Surface topography of corroded plate. (a) Macrograph. (b)
thick. The slabs were then thermomechanically processed to Scanning electron micrograph
12 mm thick plates. The plate was characterized for its
microstructure, inclusion content, and mechanical properties
Table 1 Chemical composition of corroded steel plates
by standard procedures. These plates were supplied to the
sugar plant for fabrication of equipment vessels. Elements C Mn Si S P Cu

Concentration 0.22 0.77 0.27 0.032 0.020 Trace

(wt.%)
Results

Visual examination of corroded plate showed a rough, appearance of pits on the surface in the vicinity of pearlitic
corroded surface topography (Fig. 2a). Pitting was severe band is shown in Fig. 3(b).
in the inner surface of the evaporator and also in the heat- Sulfur in steel forms MnS inclusions. As this is basically
affected zone (HAZ) of the welded region of the evaporator a plain carbon steel with 0.032% S, elongated MnS
vessel. The SEM surface topography of the pitted plate stringers of varying sizes were observed. Some of the pits
from the evaporator vessel (Fig. 2b) showed the presence were located close to the MnS stringers (Fig. 4). The vol-
of pits of varying dimensions with oxides. The oxides were ume fraction, size, and shape of inclusions are important in
mainly Fe2O3 and FeO(OH). determining the corrosion resistance of steel. The volume
The chemical composition of the corroded plate is given fraction of inclusions for the evaporator steel was 0.37%,
in Table 1. The analysis of the steel showed that this is a and the average length of the inclusions was 17.2 lm.
plain carbon steel (0.22% C) without copper conforming to Corrosion is extensive in the areas where major dimension
ASTM A 36 standard. The sulfur in steel was 0.032%. of inclusions is located at the material surface. In this case,
The typical microstructure of a plate about 4 mm there is a larger inclusion/matrix interface where corrosion
beneath the surface showed a banded microstructure con- can be initiated (Fig. 4).
sisting primarily of equiaxed grains of ferrite and pearlite A WDS line scan (Fig. 5) did not reveal much variation
(Fig. 3a). The average ferrite grain size was 18.5 lm. The in chemical composition across the surface. The peaks in
pearlitic bands were aligned in the rolling direction. The Mn Ka scan are due to enrichment of Mn in the pearlitic

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band (Fig. 3a). Higher carbon is detrimental since it

increases the corrosion in dilute acidic media [3] such as
chemically treated cane juice. In dilute H2SO4 and HCl,
low-carbon steel is less corrosive than higher-carbon steel.
Inhomogeneous distribution of alloying elements is also
detrimental for corrosion resistance due to formation of
microgalvanic cells.
In some of these vessels, corrosion was observed in the
vicinity of the weld zone particularly near the fusion line.
Because vessels are fabricated by welding, selection of
optimum welding conditions is a prerequisite for corrosion
resistance. Because the corrosion was associated with the
macro/microstructure of the steel, an alternate material of
construction was selected.
The chemical composition of the OHF steel selected is
given in Table 2. This is a low-carbon steel with copper.
Sulfur was also kept low to improve corrosion resistance.
The processing schedule of plate is shown in Fig. 6. The
slabs were soaked at 1250 C. The number of rolling passes
was 17 with 10 to 20% reduction per pass. The plates were
cross-rolled at intermediate stage by turning them 90 on
the roller table as shown in Fig. 6. The objective was to
Fig. 3 Microstructures of corroded plate. (a) Mid-thickness. obtain a uniform moderate size grain structure after c fi a
(b) Close to surface
transformation. This was achieved by control of pass
schedule and finishing the rolling in the recrystallized
austenite region at ~880 C [4, 5]. The microstructure of
the plate is shown in Fig. 7. It is predominantly an equi-
axed ferritic structure. The average ferrite grain size was
22.1 lm. The inclusions were mainly MnS. The volume
fraction of inclusions was 0.32%, and the average size was
17.0 lm. The shape of inclusions was mostly lenticular due
to intensive cross rolling of plate at the intermediate stage.
The cross rolling also forced the inclusions to be primarily
parallel to the plate surface.

Discussion

Alloying elements, impurity level, processing, and fabri-

cation affect pitting corrosion resistance of steel. The
corroded steel displayed relatively higher carbon, manga-
nese, and sulfur, as well as a banded microstructure with
MnS stringers. The formation of pits is associated with
increase of second-phase particles, mainly pearlite, and is
also due to larger inclusion/matrix interface area.
Reduction of carbon in modified steel (Table 2) has an
important bearing on microstructure since overall hetero-
geneity is reduced. Maintaining the finish rolling temper-
ature (FRT) in the recrystallized austenite region has also
eliminated the tendency toward banding, and grains
became uniform, equiaxed, and of moderate size, which are
beneficial for corrosion resistance. Reduction of sulfur in
Fig. 4 Morphology of inclusions close to pits steel and adoption of intensive cross rolling at intermediate

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190 J Fail. Anal. and Preven. (2007) 7:187–191

Fig. 5 Wavelength dispersive

spectroscopy line scan showing
variation of alloying elements
across the surface

Fig. 6 Thermomechanical
processing schedule of low-
carbon copper-bearing steel
plate

Table 2 Chemical composition of improved steel

Heat No. Composition, wt.%
C Mn Si S P Cu

4492 0.08 0.50 0.105 0.024 0.04 0.21

stage for the plate led to formation of lenticular-shaped

MnS inclusions that reduced the inclusion/matrix interface
area where corrosion can be initiated. The nonuniform
stress state of metal surrounding a stringer-type nonme-
tallic inclusion promoted electrochemical activity of metal/
inclusion interface area in the metal surrounding the
inclusion and formation of microgalvanic cells [6]. Fig. 7 Microstructure of low-carbon copper-bearing steel

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The evaporator material was non-copper-bearing practice reduces the heterogeneity of weld zone and thus
carbon-manganese steel. Copper is known to improve reduces the tendency toward pitting corrosion. Fabrication
corrosion resistance of steel when added in small amounts of an evaporator using this low-carbon steel led to superior
(0.20%) [7]. Copper has a beneficial effect on the passiv- performance in service.
ation of iron and increases the corrosion resistance due to
formation of a very thin oxide film on the steel surface. The
localized enrichment of copper and other elements was Conclusions
observed in the rust layer in multiple-alloy (copper, nickel,
chromium, phosphorus) weathering steel [8]. The enrich- The investigation of the corroded plate from the evaporator
ment of copper is believed to play a major role in vessel revealed that the steel used for fabrication was
preventing the development of pits. In mildly acidic media, ordinary mild steel that contained a relatively high con-
the initial stage of film development is similar in steels centration of stringer-type inclusions. The steel also
without copper and in copper-bearing low-carbon steel. exhibited a nonuniform grain structure with pearlitic bands.
However, at later stages, corrosion of copper-bearing The use of a low-carbon, low-sulfur steel with copper
low-carbon steel reduces due to formation of an adherent, additions together with processing in a recrystallized
more impervious protective rust layer [2, 9]. austenite regime and use of optimum cross rolling at
The corrosion resistance of steel is also influenced by its intermediate stage led to superior performance of evapo-
processing history. Grain size plays an important role in rator vessels in sugar industry.
pitting corrosion [10]. The corroded plate exhibited non-
uniform grains (Fig. 3) due to the processing schedule of
plate. An equiaxed, uniform, and moderate grain size is References
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