Talk:Black powder in gas pipelines

Badly written. needs improvement

"Black powder collects in gas piping that is mostly mill scale, from new sales gas pipeline, flash rust from hydrotest water, post internal pipeline corrosion, and could be carryover from gas gathering lines." At first reading I thought "mill scale" was a type of pipe. 78.146.234.221 (talk) 15:44, 7 January 2010 (UTC)

Black powder consists of carbon polymers that deposit themselves electrostatically upon the inner lining of any pipe or pipeline, and not necessarily a gas pipeline. A lot of us think of pipelines as dry (as opposed to wet), but the fact is, carbon molecules tend to attach themselves to bare metal at the microscopic level, and the carbon molecules can be in a liquid solution, and they will still deposit themselves electrostatically on the metal.

The main page of this article could be improved if you talk about experimental steps taken to duplicate the phenomenon that we (or many of us) have observed first hand. And I think the more common term for black powder is, how shall I put it, soot. -The precipitate of a mass of highly similar carbon molecules that feel very slippery to the touch.

I think there have been some articles elsewhere about buckey balls and buckey tubes - a major constituent of sooty incomplete combustions. But as I understand it, combustion isn't necessary. Quantum effects result in the carbon's precipitating directly out of the gas or liquid it is immersed in. And as it precipitates, it collects directly on the inner surface of the metal pipe. Maybe you could link to an article along those lines? Dexter Nextnumber (talk) 06:48, 8 January 2010 (UTC)