Many industries including liquified natural gas (LNG) production plants require materials that can withstand extreme cold temperature such as − 196 °C. The material selection process is always a complex and challenging task. In fact, material selection is considered as a part of design engineering that should be performed with extra care to prevent valve material failure due to various reasons such as corrosion, mechanical stresses and loads as well as low and high temperature conditions. This chapter explains various types of corrosion in a typical LNG plant such as carbon dioxide corrosion, hydrogen sulfide corrosion, mercury corrosion, amine corrosion, caustic corrosion, pitting corrosion, chloride stress cracking corrosion, microbial induced cracking corrosion, brittle fracture due to extreme low temperature condition, etc. This chapter explains some of the essential material properties related to resistance of material at extreme low temperature such as toughness, ductility, brittleness and an important test such as Charpy V-notch impact test to measure the material toughness. This chapter provides a general review on the common materials for the industrial valves like carbon steel, low temperature carbon steel, different types of stainless steels and nickel alloys. All these materials are evaluated with regards to their cryogenic temperature resistance. In addition, non-metallic materials for industrial valves and cryogenic applications like elastomers and thermoplastics are included in this chapter.
