Stainless steel is corrosion resistant - not corrosion proof. It will degrade over time - just a lot longer interval. Not a bad idea though.
Hydrofluoric acid eats glass though I'd think fluorine would be rare in coal or oil. Glass would have to be tempered in some way (like Pyrex) to reduce its brittleness. Ceramics might work (space shuttle tiles anyone lol).
Gold is one of (if not the) most un-reactive of metals but it can be dissolved by a combination of nitric and sulfuric acids both of which are probably produced by burning coal (from nitrogen and sulfur).
Face it gents - Mother Nature wins every time, lol.
We could always throw in a sacrificial anode, but although the gold does react, its compounds are thermodynamically unstable and nitric acid by itself won't work but in combination with hydrochloric the nitric acid oxidizes a minute portion of the gold to give a gold ion which then reacts with the hydrochloric acid to form the insoluble gold chloride but if you leave it lying around it eventually reverts back to gold. Titanium amongst others is resistant to the mixture otherwise known as Aqua Regia which used to be an ancient test for gold.
Chemists have been bending the rules round mother nature for a long time. I think the answer is there isn't an economic solution at the moment, but it would probably run along the lines of thicker tubes in a more acid resistant material which are replaced more often, ie the cost of doing business and that would negate the other savings.
Cheerio John
B.Sc. Chemistry but it was a long time ago.
I think stainless steel or ceramics (as Been pointed out) would be the best choices. I think I might have to start a thread called, "Solving Frano-Crosti Problems". lol
It is really hard to find that kind of information. But I think I found something that said they can use stainless steel. They didn't specify what parts were made of stainless steel, but they use it.
