With the continuous tightening marine diesel engines emission standards, removing sulfur oxides (SOX) by sodium hydroxide solution absorption is a highly efficiency and economic method, which has been a hot area of research. The ensuing desulfurization solution is a new corrosive system, the aim of this paper is to ascertain the corrosion feature of Q235B steel in desulfurization solution, which lays a theoretical foundation for industrialization. For this purpose, mass loss, electrochemical techniques and surface analyses were applied. The results of mass loss highlight a reduction in the corrosion rate with 35 days of immersion. Higher exposure time increased the compactness of the corrosion product layer and changed phase composition. These conclusions are supported by surface analyses, such as X-ray diffraction and scanning electron microscope. However, electrochemical results showed that the polarization resistance Rp was fluctuant. Both of Rp and charge transfer resistance Rt reach a maximum after immersing 21 days. In addition, although the sediments attached to the steel surface could inhibit corrosion, pitting corrosion aggravated by hydrolyzation of FeSO4 should be given more attention.
Keywords: Q235B steel; corrosion mechanism; desulfurization solution; pitting corrosion.