I.

BACKGROUND OF THE STUDY

The growing awareness of fertilizer’s pivotal role in modern agriculture and
food production has been driven by a parallel, rapid development of chemistry and
the chemical industry. Corrosion is a worldwide crucial problem that strongly
affects sulfuric, phosphoric, nitric, and hydrochloric; strong bases: soda ash, caustic
soda, and ammonia; and salts of potassium and ammonia. All these chemicals are
highly corrosive to steels and, under certain conditions, even to stainless steels; so
that special stainless steels and high-cost nickel alloys may be required to avoid
shutdowns resulting from corrosion problems. In the manufacture and handing of
nitrogen fertilizer solutions, chromium-nickel stainless steels and aluminum alloys
are satisfactorily resistant, but copper alloys and zinc are severely corroded.
Corrosion in fertilizer plants may lead to contamination of products; loss of
materials, equipment, and operating time; increase in maintenance expense; and
environmental and even social problems. Granular fertilizer products and mixed
fertilizers are transported by trucks, railways, and ships, in bags and in bulk, and
they are stored in bins and warehouses. Corrosion of vehicles and storage structures
may result from absorption of water by the fertilizers in humid climates and from
wetting by rain. Agricultural machinery used for application of fertilizers in the
field usually natural and industrial environments, in particular in the fertilizer
industry. The chemical nature and composition of a fertilizer determine its
corrosion characteristics. Fertilizers may be acidic, neutral, or basic; their pH and
hygroscopicity affect their corrosiveness in the presence of moisture. Corrosion
problems occur in FI in four general areas: production, storage, transportation, and
field application. Production of fertilizers involves use of strong mineral acids: is
fabricated of carbon steel which is protected by paint or organic coatings. These
protective coatings may deteriorate from attack by acidic or basic fertilizers, and
this leads to further corrosion of the unprotected areas of the steel equipment. The
application of stainless steel for fabrication of critical parts of these machines
avoids these problems (Schorr, 2011).
Moreover, billions of dollars are spent each year to repair the damages resulting
from concrete reinforcing steel corrosion that initiates when aggressive chlorides
 ions, water and air penetrate through the pores solution of concrete and reach the
surface of the steel. The use of inhibitors is one of the most important methods of
protecting concrete rebar against corrosion. Corrosion inhibitors are chemical
substances which can prevent or reduce corrosion rate when present in adequate
amounts. Corrosion inhibitors have been considered as one of the most cost-
effective and applicable solution to prevent concrete reinforcement corrosion.
Inhibitors have the effect of reducing the oxidation and or reduction reactions on
the surface of the reinforcement and also promoting a passive layer at the steel
surface, which makes it more difficult for the chloride ions to remove electrons and
destroying the protective film that formed on steel surface. Many inhibitors alone
have low inhibition efficiency but the efficiency increase if it combines with other
inhibitors, this occur due to the synergistic effect existing between the inhibitors.
ZnO has been used as a corrosion inhibitor. Many authors investigated the
synergistic corrosion inhibition of Zn2+ ion with other co inhibitors (Mahdi, 2015)

II. COMMON TYPES OF CORROSION

III. PRESENT CORROSION CONTROL PRACTICES BEING CONDUCTED
BY THE COMPANY MANAGAMENT
IV. RECOMMENDATION FOR CORROSION CONTROL AND LEARNING
INSIGHTS
Potash-Nitrogen Ratio. One of the more surprising results of the study was the
beneficial effect of potash. Corrosion was expected to increase because the potash
is associated with chloride, one of the most corrosive agents to aluminum.
However, the presence of potash (potassium oxide to nitrogen = 1) reduced
corrosion by as much as 83% as compared to nonpotash solutions. There were
interactions with phosphorus pentoxide to nitrogen ratio, presence of inhibitor, and
welding.
Use of Inhibitor. Inhibitors are widely used for protecting aluminum alloys. For
example, strong calcium chloride brines are successfully handled by using sodium
dichromate as an inhibitor. The mechanism involved is polarization of anodic areas.
Addition of 0.1% sodium dichromate to the solutions decreased corrosion in most
 instances by about 90%. There were slight differences in effect between potash-
containing and nonpotash solutions. and considerable differences among alloys and
between temperatures. At 72 F. the corrosion rate was reduced 947, by the inhibitor;
at 122' F. the reduction was 84%. Allov 5052 was particularly wel1 protected by
the inhibitor.

The effect of welding on corrosion was studied in 20 tests. Although there was
no independent significance, the effect in relation to other variables was significant.
Welding had an adverse effect at the most beneficial level of variables such as
phosphorus pentoxide to nitrogen ratio, potassium oxide to nitrogen ratio, and
aeration; at the most adverse level of these variables, however, welding had a small
beneficial effect, Pitting of welded areas was rare; however, it occurred more
frequently in inhibited than in noninhibited solutions.

These recommendations were made based on the studies conducted by different

researchers. Since, the effects of these three are very significant in corrosion
control, the students decided that these must be done by all the Fertilizer industries
in the country to control and prevent corrosion in the future.
V. REFERENCES