Influence of gaseous components and pressures on hydrogen embrittlement of natural gas pipeline

Hydrogen usually penetrates metals through defects such as dislocations, vacancies, and crystalline imperfections and causes embrittlement, leading to cleavage fracture and intergranular fracture. Synthetic natural gas produced by coal gasification, biogas, and landfill gas inevitably contain hydrogen. Therefore, hydrogen embrittlement of pipeline materials should be considered when they are mixed with conventional natural gas and supplied to customers. To analyze hydrogen embrittlement of base metals and girth weld metals of API 5L X70 and X65 gas pipelines, a specimen was treated in 100 % hydrogen environment at 10 MPa to determine the hydrogen concentration in it. Small punch (SP) tests were performed under various gaseous components and pressures. When SP tests were performed at very low speed, hydrogen embrittlement could be observed. Specimens became very susceptible to hydrogen embrittlement with increasing hydrogen partial pressure in the hydrogen/methane gas mixture, and the SP energy also decreased dramatically.