“Corrosion” -A costly and dangerous phenomenon.

 I wish to release a series of knowledge sharing tips on “Corrosion” which is a costly and dangerous phenomenon. Billions of dollars are spent annually for the replacement of corroded structures, machinery, and their components. Taking all these factors into account, it becomes obvious why those engineering students/professionals/engineers involved with the design and/or maintenance of structures, piping and equipment for oil& gas, petrochemical and hydrocarbon processing industries should have a basic understanding of the corrosion process.

Corrosion. Three primary reasons for concern are:
1.  Safety: Premature failure of bridges or structures and machinery due to corrosion can result in human injury, loss of life, and collateral damage.
2.  Economics: Economic losses can be divided into direct and indirect losses. Direct losses are those losses associated with the direct replacement of corroded equipment, components, and structures. Also included are those costs, both of labor and material, to maintain equipment and structures to prevent corrosion. Indirect Losses: causes of indirect losses can be listed, it would be extremely difficult to place an actual cost on these losses. However, it would be safe to assume that these costs would be some multiple of the direct losses. Typical of these indirect losses are the following:
> Shutdown: unplanned shutdowns because of the failure of equipment resulting from corrosion lead to loss of production and consequently loss of profit. Although the actual cost of maintenance work may be minimal, the value of the lost production can be considerable.
>Contamination: During the corrosion of a metal, the fluid being transported, stored, processed, or packaged in a metallic component can pick up metallic salts. This metallic pick-up can be detrimental to the product quality and shelf life, color change etc.
 > Loss of Product: many times, corrosion is so severe that leakage will develop that permits loss of product. If this leakage occurs in a pipeline, it may go undetected for an extended period, during which time there is a continuous loss of product. If the leaking material itself is a corrosive material, it will attack its surroundings and environment thus causing additional loss.
3.Conservation Losses: apply primarily to the loss of raw material metallic resources through wastage resulting from corrosion. Also included in this wastage is the additional loss of energy and water reserves resulting from the manufacturing and fabrication of the metallic components. Additional human energy and resources are also consumed in the replacement and redesign of corroded equipment and components.
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