Reviews Of Corrosion

Special Correspondent

CHENNAI: "Corrosion is a silent killer. The impact of corrosion on the nation's exchequer is Rs.1.5 lakh crore and our aim is to bring it down to zero per cent over the next few years," said G.H.Thanki, director and principal corrosion consultant, Corrosion Control & Monitoring Consultancy, Vadodara. Delivering the special address at the two-day 2nd Corrosion Management Summit organised by CII-L.M. Thapar Centre for Competitiveness for SMEs, he said the toss due to corrosion represents 3.5 per cent of GDP against the defence outlay of 3 per cent of GDP. It could be brought down if good practices were followed. Apart from creating awareness across the industry users, CII plans to come out with a white paper as a lead-up to enactment of Corrosion Act. Experts have already identified and initiated steps in this regard. 'It is still in preKmmary stage. We wffl request the Centre to provide a certain amount of mcentive to the industry for purchasing corrosion prevention equipment, better painting system and better design and to share the cost for hiring corrosion experts," Mr. Thanki said. Mentioning that the CEOs were primarily interested in cutting corners instead of sorting 1|Page

out corrosion-related problems, he said: "But the reality of the situation is that these costs will continue to exist until the right took for the job become established at every plant." If corrosion survey is followed by corrosion audit, it would bring major benefits such as identification of silent eflect of environment and process conditions, identification of design iaults, determination of material compatibility with environment and formulation of a reliability- centred corrosion monitoring schedule to minimise corrosion toss, economic impact and plant outages, he said. In his presidential address, V.R. Krishnan, chief consultant (SMMS), Engineers India, said that most of the users were concerned about reducmg capital expenditure and extending the Bfecyck performance of the plant. Major impact will appeal to the CEOs through the CII to go in for corrosion-control measures as it has major impact on the performance and capacity of industrial units.It would also result in substantial savings in the cost of maintenance and repair, besides ensuring quality products with minimum financial inputs," he said. Corrosion audit Harinder Jeet Singh, head, CII-LM Thapar Centre for Competitiveness, said that they would conduct corrosion audit and surveys. Source: Dr. G.H. Thanki, Director, Corrosion Control & Monitoring Consultancy Company 'Government has pivotal role in corrosion control awareness' Dr. G.H. Thanki is a veteran in corrosion control with more than 35 years of experience and conducts lectures on corrosion at National Productivity Council, Gujarat Energy Development Agency and other institutes. He is also associated with IIT Mumbai. The Vadodara-based Corrosion Control & Monitoring Consultancy Company offers complete corrosion services. Thanki speaks to Madhu Chlttora on various issues related to corrosion control in India. Excerpts: What is the loss to the nation due to corrosion? There is no single figure. But if we take the baseline data available from advanced industrial countries, it can be a minimum to 3.5 per cent of the nation's GDP. In India, losses due to corrosion would be around Rs 1.5 lakh crore. The common finding of corrosion studies undertaken by several countries is that the annual corrosion costs ranged from approximately 1 to 5 per cent of the GDP of each nation. What are the various costs of corrosion? The costs of corrosion come in the form of either premature deterioration or failure 2|Page

resulting in the need for maintenance, repair and replacement of damaged equipment. Other sources of costs come from lost production and increased downtime of equipment arising from corrosion problems. In some cases, corrosion cost also includes additional standby capacity that needs to be instituted to alleviate downtime problems associated with corrosion failures or unscheduled maintenance. A recent report describes the annual direct and indirect costs of metallic corrosion in the United States and preventive strategies for optimum corrosion management. The total direct cost of corrosion is estimated at $276 billion per year, which is 3.1 per cent of the 1998 US gross domestic product. This cost was determined by analysing 26 industrial sectors, in which corrosion is known to exist, and extrapolating the results for a nationwide estimate. The annual corrosion cost of key sectors such as infrastructure has been put at Rs 22,600 crore, utility services - Rs 47,100 crore, production and manufacturing - Rs 17,650 crore, and defence and nuclear waste - Rs 20,000 crore. Correspondingly, cost of extenuation has been estimated at 1 per cent of the savings. What are the ways to fight corrosion? The current study showed that technological changes have provided many new ways to arrest corrosion, and the improved use of available corrosion management techniques. However, better corrosion management can be achieved using preventive strategies in non-technical and technical areas. These preventive strategies include: Increase awareness of large corrosion costs and potential savings; change the misconception that nothing can be done about corrosion; change policies, regulations, standards, and management practices to increase corrosion savings through sound corrosion management; improve education and training of staff in recognition of corrosion control; advance design practices for better corrosion, management; advance prediction and performance assessment methods; and advance corrosion technology through research, Corrosion is an age-old problem and yet we are unable to fight it effectively. One important reason for the high cost of corrosion is that the marketplace for corrosion products and services is very fragmented. It consists of many smaller companies that provide only a limited number of services or products. This situation has iimited the systematic gathering of archival information on losses due to corrosion.Therefore, one of the major limitations resulting from the fragmented nature of the corrosion industry is the difficulty in the dissemination and utilisation of information on best practices available. It has a!sc rnads it difficult to access many suppliers of corrosion control technologies. The Internet, and more specifically Corrosion Data Source using the Internet as an information conduit, has the potential to address many of theissues related to access to technical information while 'consolidating force in the corrosion products and services sector1. What role can the government play ?

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The government can play a pivotal role by evolving a partnership with corrosion control awareness organisations like National Association of Corrosion Engineers International India section (N1IS), National Corrosion Council of India, and other international institutes to find out the precise cost of corrosion to the nation and also create a general awareness and understanding of the losses. At least 40 per cent of the losses could be prevented by suitable intervention. Codes/standards are in place and are in the process of updating with the course of time and also keeping its pace with international needs. Since the corrosion problem starts on the drawing board in design stage, more stringent look to the application of code/standards is required. How is the cost of corrosion determined ? Although a definitive method to determine corrosion costs has not been established, the main methods that have been applied are the Uhlig method which calculates corrosionrelated costs based on corrosion prevention methods; the Hoar method, which makes estimates in various industrial sectors, and the Input/Output method, based on an Input/Output matrix. The present study summarises the methods that have been widely used, and the results obtained in each one of the countries in which they have been applied. On this basis, a programme is proposed to estimate the costs of corrosion associated with several important industrial activities. An economic evaluation technique to properly assess relative impact of corrosion is the Discounted Cash Flow Method. It is essential to have an in-depth understanding of corrosion phenomena, from both a scientific and a technological viewpoint to develop strategies that minimise the costs associated with the corrosion of materials. This high cost of corrosion results due to lack of awareness of the economic impact of corrosion, and the poor Various remedial and corrosion control measures are available and these, when coupled with a planned corrosion control programme, help reduce the cost of corrosion. Corrosion survey and corrosion audit of plant assets is the need of the day to know the impact of corrosion and its manifestation to curb it before it becomes unmanageable. Name some of the technologies to minimise losses due to corrosion ? The field of corrosion control in various sectors is dominated by several fundamental technologies that when properly applied can be used to minimise losses due to corrosion. These technologies include: Corrosion resistant alloys: Ferrous and non-ferrous alloys that, by virtue of their chemical composition, have resistance to various corrosives. Coatings and linings : Metallic and polymeric materials that are applied to materials to enhance their resistance to corrosive degradation. These materials act as a barrier between the corrosive environment and the substrate material.

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Chemical treatments : These treatments involve the application of a chemical formulation to either the service environment or the exposed surface of the materials of construction that reduces corrosion to an acceptably low level. These treatments include corrosion inhibitors, neutralizers, passivators and other corrosion control chemicals. Cathodic protection : An electrochemical method involving application of a cathodic current to reduce the rate of corrosion to an acceptable level. This can be performed using an impressed current or the current produced by the preferential corrosion of a sacrificial material. Non-metallic materials: Polymeric, ceramic or composite materials that have an inherent chemical resistance to corrosive agents in the service environment. Testing and analyses : Includes laboratory and field corrosion testing, corrosion monitoring, chemical analysis and non-destructive testing of components. The National Bureau of Standards early survey of corrosion expenditure segregated these classifications. It indicates that the highest corrosion expenditures are for corrosion resistant alloys which total about 55 per cent of the total, followed in decreasing order by protective coatings (30 per cent), nonmetallics (5 per cent), cathodic protection (5 per cent), inhibitors (4 per cent) and testing (1 per cent). Whereas the percentages are good overall indication of expenditures, the amount may vary considerably by industrial sector. An example of the potential variability in corrosion expenditures by industry can be estimated by comparing corrosion control activities in various sectors of the economy. In the chemical industry, corrosion control is primarily through the application of corrosion resistant alloys that can withstand exposure to the aggressive chemicals in processing plants. By comparison, the petroleum production and refining sectors have a much greater use of chemical inhibitors added to the process environment and the combination of coatings and cathodic protection applied to the external surface of buried pipelines. In the transportation industry (including automobile transportation), corrosion control is primarily through the use of coatings.

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