Henry Royce Institute calls for Technology Roadmap

Henry Royce Institute calls for Technology Roadmap

Industry News

The Henry Royce Institute for Advanced Materials has called for co-ordinated action to address the significant degradation challenges presented by the transition to net zero through a ‘Technology Roadmap for Net Zero’.  Such a roadmap would select which technologies should be prioritised for investment and also be attached to key dates linked to when they’re expected to come online. It could also define the most cost-effective investment pathway to net zero, allowing industry and academia to develop Research, Development and Innovation (RD&I) programmes in alignment with clear timescales for delivery.

For many sustainable and low carbon technologies, the degradation of structural materials presents significant and ongoing challenges which can limit the performance, operational life, and sustainability of assets. For example, the financial impact of corrosion, which represents just one of the mechanisms under the umbrella term of degradation, has been estimated at 3.4% of the world’s GDP, thus significant savings could be achieved through better understanding and effective management of materials degradation.

To explore these issues in more depth, Royce commissioned a major landscaping exercise  which examined the impact of degradation on wind power generation, carbon capture use and storage (CCS), nuclear fission power generation, transportation technologies (air, road, rail and sea), and hydrogen production and usage, with the overall aim of identifying the materials-related issues affecting the lifetime of structural components, and prioritise the research needed to improve the lifetime of these components.

The report identified a need for high-level strategic direction to guide R&D efforts towards these degradation challenges, but stated that in order for such a strategy to have authority and credibility, it is imperative that it should be developed as a collaborative effort between senior policymakers, along with a broad range of cross-sectoral academic and industrial stakeholders. Bill Hedges, ICorr President, and project champion for the Royce landscape study said: “Significant savings and societal benefits can be achieved through better understanding and effective management of degradation issues. Yet at the moment funding calls continue to encourage an isolated approach to investigating degradation mechanisms and this report recommends that only with a significant change in leadership and policy will the obvious opportunities for transformational change be grasped and ultimately realised. While the report confirms that there were no ‘show-stopping’ issues associated with materials degradation that will block the path to net zero, there are however many opportunities to reduce the costs associated with this.”

As a consequence of this study, the research, development and innovation programmes required to support net zero and tackle the degradation challenge, need to be a collaboration between governing bodies, UK Research and Innovation, major industry players, the supply chain, the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, and academia.

The full report can be found at, https://www.royce.ac.uk/collaborate/roadmapping-landscaping/degradation/

For further information, contact Dr Andrew Bowfield, Business Development Manager, Henry Royce Institute,  E: andrew.bowfield@manchester.ac.uk, and the report can be found at, https://www.royce.ac.uk/collaborate/roadmapping-landscaping/degradation/

Editor’s Note : The Henry Royce Institute is the UK national institute for advanced materials research and innovation, with the aim of growing, and supporting, world-wide recognition of the excellence of UK materials research, accelerating commercial exploitation and delivering positive economic and societal impact for the UK. With its base in Manchester, it is funded by the Engineering & Physical Sciences Research Council, part of UK Research & Innovation.

Henry Royce Institute calls for Technology Roadmap

Opening of the new Henry Royce Institute hub building

Industry News

Professor Dame Ottoline Leyser CEO of UK Research and Innovation opened the new Henry Royce Institute Hub Building at the University of Manchester, on 7th September.

Professor Dame Nancy Rothwell, President and Vice-Chancellor at The University of Manchester and Dame Julia King, the Baroness Brown of Cambridge and Chair of the Henry Royce Institute, welcomed guests to Royce’s flagship building at the university and set out the capabilities of the new UK centre for materials research and meeting place for the advanced materials community.

Following a tour of the building’s laboratories and meeting researchers, Dame Ottoline unveiled a plaque marking the official opening of the Royce Hub Building, which will be the hub to 400 researchers, PhD Students and professional services staff driving research and innovation in advanced materials.

The event also saw an important keynote video message from The Rt Hon Kwasi Kwarteng MP, Secretary of State for Business Energy and Industrial Strategy, who highlighted the importance of Government investment in innovation and technology translation. The Business Secretary noted that Advanced Materials & Manufacturing is a key technology family of “UK strength and opportunity”, as highlighted in the Government’s recently announced UK Innovation Strategy: Leading the future by creating it. 

The building hosts £45 million of new state-of-the-art equipment alongside existing facilities in Manchester for biomedical materials, metals processing, digital fabrication, and sustainable materials research, including the new Sustainable Materials Innovation Hub part-funded by the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF). In addition, there is a variety of collaboration spaces for industry engagement, helping to accelerate the development and commercialisation of advanced materials.

During the event, Carol Holden OBE, from the Northern Automotive Alliance presented on the Royce role in industrial innovation and Mia Maric, winner of IOM3 Young Person’s Lecture Competition talked about her Manchester PhD experience and the benefits of using Royce’s equipment and expertise in her research.

Royce’s presence in Manchester extends well beyond this new building it also has substantial space and equipment in the Alan Turing Building, together with facilities in the National Graphene Institute, Manchester Institute of Biotechnology and at the Dalton Nuclear Institute.  It will soon also extend its reach into the new Manchester Engineering Campus Development – the MECD – which is the single largest home for engineering in any UK university.

Industry News, Uncategorized

The branch was extremely pleased to be able to hold their first post-covid ‘Face to Face’ event on 24th August 2021 at the premises of hosts TRAC Oil & Gas Ltd, which included a range of technology demonstrations, kindly compiled by Mike Dixon (NDT Technical Manager) and Ian Somers (TRAC Compliance Manager – Executive Director of IRATA International), with the proceedings chaired by 2021-2022 branch chair Hooman Takhtechian.  This Annual Corrosion Forum also comprised eight presentations by speakers from various companies, all very active in the integrity management field.

The event attracted over 30 delegates who enjoyed an interesting programme themed on ‘External Corrosion Management’ which remains a major issue in North Sea Oil and Gas operations.

For most, this was their first public meeting in nearly 18 months of home-working, and the relaxed atmosphere and relief was clearly evident after 3 covid waves, numerous covid tests, and long queues for vaccinations.

Dr Mehdi Monir, Senior Corrosion Engineer (Oceaneering), commenced the proceedings with a very comprehensive introduction to the principles of external corrosion, and the key deterioration mechanisms found within the Oil and Gas industries, together with common mitigation strategies. The environmental factors that drive corrosion pitting and cracking were clearly explained, along with how these influence corrosion rates in various regions of the world, with the UK marine environment being particularly aggressive.

Walt Doxford, Specialist Inspector for the Offshore Division of HSE, followed on with an explanation of the HSE regulatory requirements and recent experiences from their viewpoint for a mature industry operating in a hostile environment, key issues being:

  • Atmospheric external corrosion
  • Bolting corrosion
  • Corrosion of / at pipe supports, (in particular trunnion supports).
  • CUI, (corrosion under insulation)
  • Deck penetrations
  • FM (fabric maintenance) in later life assets

This was in the context of many ageing assets approaching COP (cessation of production) and the drives by operators to reduce staffing levels and vendor visits to site.

Mike Adams, Director of Eden Asset Integrity Ltd, then considered this all from the Inspector / NDT Technician’s point of view (at the front line and often forgotten), and emphasised the need for corrosion engineers to correctly direct the industry workforce, so that NDT inspections are
relevant to the likely corrosion and erosion mechanisms occurring, and which may be due to:

  • Changes in process corrosivity.
  • Local increases in fluid velocity or changes in direction.
  • Wherever a microbe just happens to settle down.
  • Where surface wetting occurs.
  • Where mineral or corrosion scale builds up or breaks down.

The NDT technician needs to know the expected form of damage, so that they can select the right technique, and because most NDT is just a sample of the total surface area, where to look, as without such information serious damage may be missed with consequential in-service failures.

Colin Fowlis (Operations Manager) and Stuart Rennie (Commercial Manager) – Presserv (UK) Ltd, gave a great introduction to external mitigation by coatings covering all aspects of surface preparation technologies and available coating types on the theme ‘Coatings – The 1st line of defence against corrosion’ and highlighted that 50% of external corrosion costs are preventable (through regular fabric maintenance programmes).

The critical considerations for coating material selection were discussed including:

  • Climatic conditions.
  • Ease of application.
  • HSE considerations.
  • Mechanical characteristics.
  • Overall lifetime cost (including future maintenance).
  • Suitability to environment.
  • Supply logistics.
  • Tolerance to surface.

Frances Chalmers, Technical Consultant of Plant Integrity Management Ltd, continued the proceedings with a ‘Whistle-stop tour of CUI Management” including CUPS (corrosion under pipe supports), and reviewed the key regulator recommendations of the HSE-led CUI forum held on 31st May, which were:

Regulator Viewpoint, point 1

  • Establish an effective CUI management scheme.
  • Meeting good practice alone may not be sufficient to comply with the law (avoidance of prosecution in the event of an incident and/or issue of HSE improvement notice). i.e. The installation must remain safe in all respects.

Regulator Viewpoint, point 2

  • Do what you say you’re going to do.
  • Be clear about progress and CUI priorities.

Regulator Viewpoint, point 3 

  • Conduct suitable inspection at a frequency to permit detection and remediation of deterioration in good time.

Frances went on to describe CUI management strategies in great detail for asset early life, mid-life, and late-life situations, and RBI approaches, in consideration of all key factors and noting that CUI corrosion rate data can vary significantly for individual plants and locations (operating environments). A traffic light system was proposed for insulation anomalies and for assessing the degree of damage and risk.  The manner in which a CUI defect finally fails being most usually related to its operating pressure, i.e. sudden burst (at high pressure) or weep/seep (at low pressure).

Frode Wiggen, Snr. Principal Engineer DNV, closed the morning session with a “virtual’ presentation and outlined the new DNV CUI Manager software, for managing the significant threats posed by CUI, developed under a joint industry project, resulting in DNVGL-RP-G109 methodology that facilitates structured continuous assessment and documentation of present and future CUI risk. This new project was first outlined at the SPE Corrosion Conference in June 2021, and may be found at https://www.spe-aberdeen.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/11/Thurs_DNVGL-RP-G109-presentation-rev-1.pdf

In the afternoon and after catering courtesy of our hosts, delegates were treated to an excellent series of NDT demonstrations highlighting the very latest technologies deployed in the energy and other sectors by TRAC, who are long-time supporters of the branch and its technical programme.

The event went off successfully and the branch are extremely grateful to TRAC for their hard work in making it possible for everyone.

The successful Corrosion Forum approach of blended learning, (virtual, plus face-to-face teaching), will surely continue in the years ahead, as we all seek to avoid unnecessary travel, in the desire by all to meet ever stricter environmental targets and avoid further pandemics.

All the technical papers for the event can be found at, https://sites.google.com/site/icorrabz/ and also at Aberdeen Branch – Institute of Corrosion (icorr.org) under “Local Technical Programme, August 2021”.

A reminder that the branch is inviting applications for the 2022 ICorr Young Engineer Programme (YEP), which it is pleased to support, following in the footsteps of the highly successful and extremely popular London Branch programmes. For its Aberdeen rotation, the YEP course will reflect the extensive locally based Oil and Gas related Industries, and of course also the rapidly growing Renewables Energy Sector. Please contact Hooman Takhtechian,  HTakhtechian@oceaneering.com, if you are interested in participating in this.

 

Latest from London Branch

Latest from London Branch

Institute News

The November technical talk will be on “Lessons Learned from 40 years in Corrosion Protection”, by Alex Garner, Corrosion Services Ltd. This is planned to be held on the 11th at the Lancaster House Hotel, Bayswater, London, with the meeting starting at 18.00.

The presentation will focus will be on the highs, with brief mentions of the lows, of a 40-year career in corrosion protection, including CP, material selection, coatings and insulation, for a wide variety of onshore and offshore facilities. The journey will start in 1980 and cover technical and social challenges in office and site -based work in Europe, Middle East, Asia, Canada, South America, and Australia. as well as the corrosion protection peers encountered over the years, many of which are now friends. The anecdotal guidance delivered in the presentation will highlight the pleasures and technical excellence that can be achieved in this industry and hopefully will not scare too many people away from it.   

The branch has decided to go ahead with their annual Christmas luncheon this year.  This will take place on 2nd  December at the usual venue, The Royal Oversees League, Piccadilly, London, for further information, or to book a table, please contact, sjbarke55@gmail.com.

ICorr Fellow Receives Prestigious EFC Award

ICorr Fellow Receives Prestigious EFC Award

Institute News

Dr Richard Barker, FiCorr, is the latest in a line of notable Corrosion Scientists to receive the prestigious Kurt Schwabe Award on behalf of the European Federation of Corrosion Committee.

The Kurt Schwabe Prize, established in 2000, honours the late Professor Kurt Schwabe and was initiated by the Hungarian Corrosion Society with support from the ‘Kurt Schwabe Foundation’. Presented once every 3 years, the award, consisting of a certificate and 500 Euros, recognises the scientific and technical contribution of young scientists below the age of 35 in the field of corrosion science. The last UK recipient of the award prior to Dr Barker was Professor Mary Ryan of Imperial College in 2003.

This year, the ICorr committee nominated Dr Barker based on his significant contribution and demonstrable impact, predominantly in the oil and gas industry. Dr Barker is an Associate Professor in Corrosion Science and Engineering in the Institute of Functional Surfaces at the University of Leeds. His research interests lie in the areas of electrochemistry, corrosion science and corrosion engineering, particularly in the context of asset integrity and flow assurance in the energy and low carbon abatement sectors. His expertise encompasses numerical modelling, unique/custom system design for the observation of corrosion phenomena, development of in-situ methods for real-time interface characterisation during corrosion processes, and understanding corrosion behaviour in extreme environments (high temperature/pressure, strong acids and toxic gases).

Dr Barker received the award at the opening ceremony of the Eurocorr conference on the 20th September and delivered a plenary talk on the opening day.