Corrosive Effect of Gas Flaring on Metals in Egi Kingdom (Galvanized Iron and Brass)

This work investigated the effect of gas flaring on the rate of corrosion of metals in the Egi Kingdom of Rivers State, Nigeria. Surface water which has been exposed to gas flaring taken from Ogbogu gas flow station within the Egi kingdom in Ogba/Egbema/Ndoni Local Government Area of Rivers State Nigeria, was used for this experiment. The procedure involved soaking one set of various coupons of galvanized iron and brass in the water taken from within the gas flow station and another set in distilled water and kept for 14 days; after which the metals were removed and weighed for weight loss as a result of the corrosive effect of both water. This process was repeated for 56 days and various data obtained was analyzed using empirical corrrelation. Matlab was used for computation and simulations. At day 42, corrosion rate for the flared zone water and distilled water were for Galvanized Iron 2.431cm/days and 1.651cm/days, and Brass 2.382 cm/days and 1.786 cm/days respectively. The result obtained showed a higher rate of corrosion for water taken from the Ogbogu gas flow station than distilled water. The results thus confirm that gas flaring activities increases the rate of corrosion in the environment and explains the reason for the high rate of corrosion within the Egi Kingdom.