Aluminide slurry coatings for protection of ferritic steel in molten nitrate corrosion for concentrated solar power technology

Molten nitrates can be employed as heat storage fluids in solar concentration power plants. However molten nitrates are corrosive and if operating temperatures are raised to increase efficiencies, the corrosion rates will also increase. High temperature corrosion resistant coatings based on Al have demonstrated excellent results in other sectors such as gas turbines. Aluminide slurry coated and uncoated P92 steel specimens were exposed to the so called Solar Salt (industrial grade), a binary eutectic mixture of 60 % NaNO₃ – 40 % KNO₃, in air for 2000 hours at 550°C and 580°C in order to analyze their behavior as candidates to be used in future solar concentration power plants employing molten nitrates as heat transfer fluids. Coated ferritic steels constitute a lower cost technology than Ni based alloy. Two different coating morphologies resulting from two heat treatment performed at 700 and 1050°C after slurry application were tested. The coated systems exhibited excellent corrosion resistance at both temperatures, whereas uncoated P92 showed significant mass loss from the beginning of the test. The coatings showed very slow reaction with the molten Solar Salt. In contrast, uncoated P92 developed a stratified, unprotected Fe, Cr oxide with low adherence which shows oscillating Cr content as a function of coating depth. NaFeO₂ was also found at the oxide surface as well as within the Fe, Cr oxide.