The fight against corrosion

Replacing corroded pipelines costs upwards of $643,000 per kilometer. Mark Byerley, President of NACE International, explains why maintaining and inspecting pipelines is vital in the battle with corrosion.

“We’re one of the few disciplines in the engineering field that actually works every day to put ourselves out of a job, because once corrosion’s eliminated we’ll have nothing else to do”
-Mark Byerley, President of NACE International

In 2002, the US Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) released a breakthrough two-year study on the direct costs associated with metallic corrosion in nearly every industry sector, from infrastructure and transportation to production and manufacturing. The study, initiated by NACE International, revealed that corrosion is the primary factor affecting the longevity and reliability of pipelines that transport crucial energy sources throughout the nation. There are more than 528,000 kilometers of natural gas pipelines, 119,000 kilometers of crude oil pipelines and 132,000 kilometers of hazardous liquid pipelines in the US, amounting to an estimated US$7 billion in average annual corrosion-related costs in monitoring, replacing and maintaining these assets.

"Given the slow and destructive nature of corrosion we are looking at replacing a kilometer of pipeline for around US$643,000 or more, which is an extremely expensive proposition," explains Mark Byerley, President of NACE International, the leader in the corrosion engineering and science community. "Maintenance and inspection are of primary importance - at least they should be to many companies - so the driving force for that expenditure is to preserve the asset of pipeline and to ensure they operate safely without failures and jeopardizing public safety, the environment and everything else that comes with that."

The survey indicated that the primary loss of protection on the pipelines was due mainly for two reasons: the degradation or deterioration of the coating and the inadequate protection levels. So the major maintenance is associated with monitoring and repair problems, and in addition to maintenance there is the issue of integrity management and inspection focusing on condition assessment, corrosion mitigation, life assessment and risk modeling. "If you look at maintenance packages, you're looking at between US$3000 and US$6500 per kilometer annually to maintain a pipeline and protect it from corrosion; compared to the offset from what it costs to replace a pipeline, you can see that the ROI is fairly extended," says Byerley.

Following a number of high-profile pipeline failures, public safety concerns have driven new regulations and corrosion control practices for gas and liquid transmission pipelines over the last several years. Byerley highlights the various technologies that can help in maintaining and ensuring pipelines live a long and happy life. "First of all you need to look at the materials that go into the pipeline, the types of steel you use," he advises. "Plus there's a coating component, making sure that the pipeline is well protected dielectrically from the outside elements. And we do that through various coating technologies, whether it be fusion-bonded epoxies or tape-wrap systems. There are several spray-applied type systems as well. And then we get into the electronics side, where we're inducing currents into the field to help slow the effects of corrosion, or to mitigate them in areas where the coatings are not present."

Byerley goes on to explain that as corrosion experts, the sector produces a different breed of engineers and with the increase in research and development, the industry is improving worldwide. "We're one of the few disciplines in the engineering field that actually work every day to put ourselves out of a job, because once corrosion's eliminated we'll have nothing else to do."

Much of the work done at NACE International continues to revolve around the US Department of Defense. However, NACE is looking at different outreaches - not just in the US pipeline market, but around the world - to help mitigate the problems, including Australia and New Zealand, as well as Europe. And as pipelines improve around the world the industry is seeing a much more aggressive use of improved data gathering, through the use of multiple technologies and coatings in conjunction with the cathodic protection ECDA (external corrosion direct assessment) and other pipeline integrity management programs.

And as a result of the increased use of pipeline integrity management programs, NACE has seen a rise in demand for education on these programs too. "If you look at the lack of knowledge of senior management, it's not a bad thing, just something that they usually don't deal in," explains Byerley. So getting that senior management buy-in is a huge challenge for the corrosion department in these companies, and while there are over 21,000 NACE members worldwide, the vast majority are not even considering corrosion until a calamity strikes.

"Through the media staff at NACE, we have the responsibility of asking for an audience with those in senior management positions, and have done some corporate outreach programs getting people to understand how easy it is to protect pipelines - especially cost-wise - in order to try to prevent having to replace that pipeline. Today's technologies allow us to keep pipelines in the ground well over 100 years, as long as they're administered properly," says Byerley. "However, these are probably not as successful as we'd like, which is probably due to corrosion being a very unsexy topic, so it's hard to get them in the doors at first."

The corporate outreach programs can involve anything from tasking employees of the company to really focus on their upper management teams to explain to them what they do everyday, to NACE staff going to a board of directors of major suppliers, pipeline companies, oil companies, gas companies and working with senior management and teams within the company to educate the management on corrosion and its effects on their systems or assets. "Knowledge is power. And if you look at what NACE is doing in this respect, we hold 450 classes and train 9000 people per year. No-one educates more people on corrosion prevention than NACE International."

Along with education, Byerley believes that the biggest challenge in the fight against corrosion is in inspection and maintenance frequencies. The more remote or hostile the environment, the more difficult it is to get to the point of inspection or a component that needs to be maintained. "It really starts at the lay of the pipeline," claims Byerley. "But that said we are now doing a lot of work with remote monitoring, where the pipeline actually reports to a central hub via satellite or cellular communications, so we can actually monitor the pipeline from an office thousands of miles away."

Byerley advises that companies looking to improve the issue of corrosion need to start getting involved in the industry and look at how they can participate. "Whether it's getting the members of their companies involved at a local section of an organization like NACE or whether it's in a research committee at NACE, technical committees help drive standards which then form new education programs," he says. "These are just some of the more vital areas in NACE International, but there are other things like supporting an employee and furthering their education on corrosion prevention, whether they get involved in formal training or attend conference and technical symposiums."

Moving forward it is clear that increasing research and development, as well as furthering education, could dramatically improve the issue of corrosion in the US and around the world. While technological advancements are happening all the time, the best way to prevent corrosion involves better corrosion management through preventive strategies in both non-technical and technical areas.

Mark Byerley, a 30-year corrosion industry veteran, is NACE International President for the 2009-2010 term.

Preventive strategies

• Increase awareness of significant corrosion costs and potential cost savings
• Change the misconception that nothing can be done about corrosion
• Change policies, regulations, standards and management practices to increase corrosion cost savings though sound corrosion management
• Improve education and training of staff in recognition of corrosion control
• Implement advanced design practices for better corrosion management
• Develop advanced life-prediction and performance-assessment methods
• Improve corrosion technology through research, development and implementation

[Source: www.nace.org]