Carbon Steel Pickling

If the pickling process is carefully controlled, it will not damage your equipment. Rigorous checks should be made to confirm that all materials within your equipment/system is compatible with the pickling chemistry. 

Pickling times are subject to the system volume, temperatures, severity of corrosion debris, and various other factors. All things being well, a thorough degreasing, pickling and passivation process should be possible within 3 to 4 days. Larger systems will take longer.

No. Passivation is the removal of free-iron contamination from the steel surface so that a passive layer can form. This is not possible with carbon steel. The surface would just start to oxidise (rust). Pickling will remove scale and heavy rust. After pickling, carbon steel will quickly flash-rust. A final process that removes the flash-rusting and leaves a temporary corrosion-resistant layer is required. This is usually achieved by flushing with a phosphate product, ammonium-citrate or other corrosion inhibitor.