Expert system for corrosion monitoring and control in gas treatment units

Amine gas treatment units are subjected to several corrosion processes (gen eral and pitting corrosion, environmental cracking, etc.). The corrosive na ture of the fluid is promoted for example by complex correlation between te mperature at specific points of the equipment and by the H2S and dietanolam ine (DEA) concentration. The evaluation of these parameters are done period ically by chemical analysis and real time measurements. The values obtained are compared to the corrosion rate determined by electrical resistance pro bes. In this paper some results concerning corrosion control of a DEA gas t reatment plant are presented. The design of an Expert System - ES - that in corporates all available knowledge relative to this specific corrosion prob lem is emphasised. The use of an ES emerged as the most adequate approach s ince the number of operational parameters that could be related to the corr osion process and the dynamic nature of the system make the analysis very c omplex by conventional methodologies.