Aberdeen Branch

Aberdeen Branch

Aberdeen Branch, Institute News

On Tuesday 30th May 2023 the branch welcomed David Wickham and Chris Fyfe of AkzoNobel, who gave a talk on Maintenance and Repair Solutions for Damaged or Aged PFP. This was a hybrid Joint ICorr/AMPP event with over 40 Attendees.
The branch was very pleased to be able to return to the Palm Court Hotel on this occasion, a place with which it has so long been associated.
David Wickham is a practising fire and explosion engineer with 24 years’ experience in the field of passive fire protection. He is a Chartek fire engineer / technical manager, Fire Protection, holds a Master’s degree in Fire and Explosion Engineering from the University of Leeds, UK (2002), and is also an ICorr PFP Epoxy Coating Inspector Level 3. David is currently the Fire Protection Technical Manager at International Paint (part of AkzoNobel) a member of the Institution of Fire Engineers (MIFireE), and also a visiting lecturer on the MSc course, presenting on ‘Aspects of Fire Protection in  building design’. He is responsible for providing technical support for upstream and downstream oil and gas projects, fire protection in the Built Environment and ‘special projects’ and has particular expertise in the area of ‘fire testing and evaluation of test data’ to support accreditation and certification of products to global fire test standards.  Along with fire protection in Maintenance and Repair (M&R), he is currently a project leader looking at solutions for fire protection for battery electrical energy storage systems (BEESS).
Chris Fyfe is a PFP Senior field auditor and coach. As a Chartered Scientist, Senior Corrosion Technologist, and Fellow of the Institute of Corrosion, Chris also holds an AMPP Senior Level 3 coating qualification. He has extensive knowledge of both new build and maintenance projects ranging over 35 years with several operators and has been employed as a surface protection specialist and fabric maintenance coordinator, understanding first-hand the many challenges for maintenance and repair.
Maintenance and Repair Solutions for Damaged or Aged Passive Fire Protection (PFP)
Many facilities have reached, or are reaching, the end of their original design life. However, in many cases, these facilities are required to continue operation beyond this time. This poses many operational health and safety issues, among them the efficacy of in-situ passive fire protection (PFP) that may have been applied when the facility was first commissioned. In many cases, this PFP will have deteriorated to a point where it may not provide the required protection in the event of a fire. Where this damage may be extensive, this can create difficult economic (M&R) decisions to overcome. M&R resources are not limitless, and where repair priorities have been identified, selecting the most efficient repair solution becomes important. The two most important requirements are demonstrable fire resistance performance and application costs (both materials and installation). In many cases, the latter may far outweigh
the former. Costs of installation may have a significant bearing in active process areas subject to limits on operational activities (such as surface preparation).
On older upstream and downstream facilities, in-situ PFP may comprise structural steel encased in dense concrete, Light-Weight Cementous (LWC) or other systems. Where these types of PFP are cracked or damaged, they may expose the substrate, leading to accelerated corrosion, operational integrity concerns, and dropped object hazards, in addition to concerns about continued PFP functionality. The true extent of all underlying corrosion may not be immediately apparent, and removal or replacement is normally the best course of action.
As a company, AkzoNobel recognises how M & R activities surrounding PFP performance are integral to maintaining plant operational safety by allocating limited M and R budgets more effectively. – this includes identifying and prioritising the damage of most concern (fire integrity assessment – what damage level will not meet the site fire scenario) and providing repair materials that: have proven fire resistance performance, and offer ease of installation.
The company has identified various schemes for items that need PFP repair:
• Scheme 1 – PFP adequate for the fire case – repair solution to arrest rate of corrosion.
• Scheme 2a) – Risk of dropped object hazard – repair required to remove the hazard and ensure repair is PFP functional.
• Scheme 2b) – loss of PFP functionality and corrosion concern – tested repair solution that reinstates the PFP and  stops advancement of corrosion.
• Scheme 3 – ‘special case’– repair acceptable based on other criteria or requiring specific fire testing.
Examples were given of the putty and mortar products used in the repairs onto primed or prepared surfaces and their characteristics:
• MP: A single component mouldable putty compound.
• SFR: Single component structural grade mesh-free repair mortar.
• No tools required – MP can be applied direct from the pail by hand.
• SFR only mixing with water required – and can be applied direct by hand.
• Both the above products are completely non-hazardous and repairs can be completed without any hot work permits.
For Missing and Cracked PFP – Concrete / LWC: 
• SFR product can be used; this product has been both jet and pool fire tested for over 180 minutes.
• MP is an alternative and this is jet and pool fire tested to 120 minutes. The products can fill cracks up to 50 mm wide and voids up to 900 cm2 and are Lloyds / UL verified.
For the repair, the edges of the concrete to which it will bond need to be checked for contaminants, and wire brushing should be used to clean the surfaces. Any exposed steel needs to be cleaned and an approved surface tolerant primer, such as 670HS, applied. Where the base material is concrete, the cementitious edges should be wetted to improve adhesion, and PVA glue should be used as an additive agent to help bond. The Interkote material needs to be brought flush with the concrete for this repair, no wire netting is required.
On Tuesday 28th March 2023, the  branch meeting welcomed Dr Kevin McDonald – Sonomatic, with a talk entitled ‘Effective pipework analysis and inspection planning using Digital Twins’.
Kevin is a principal integrity engineer within Sonomatic’s integrity team in Aberdeen. He is a mathematician with a PhD in computing science. He has extensive experience in data analytics and inspection planning for pipework, pressure vessels and pipelines, co-authoring the recommended practice for Non-Intrusive Inspection (NII) as applied to pressure vessels. As well as integrity consulting, he is involved in the technical capability development for Sonomatic’s integrity team with a focus on statistical approaches. Recently, he has been involved in developing a statistics-based method of inspection planning and evaluation applied to subsea pipelines for a major operator.
Effective pipework analysis and inspection planning using digital twins
The integrity of pipework is essential for the safe and reliable operation of process plants. Inspections are traditionally performed at large numbers of individual test points, with results recorded in an inspection database. In general, this data is subject to relatively simple analysis, with the results used in integrity management decisions. However, this traditional approach can be heavily influenced by poor processes, outliers, or errors for example: incorrect entry of results, not recording higher thickness readings than those obtained previously, and inconsistencies in inspection location, are some examples of how error can be introduced into this process. This could lead to poor integrity decisions and misinterpretation of wall thickness trends. Analysis of pipework data, which is in general restricted to the difference between two thickness readings relative to the dates the readings were taken, can then be driven by measurement error.
Kevin proposed a novel alternative is to consider historic datasets as a whole and look at long-term statistical behaviour to consider how corrosion could be affecting pipework. This approach looks at whole datasets to determine behaviour before considering any sub-groupings of data points that are showing similar behaviour. The Sonomatic developed SPiDARS software accommodates many data formats. Boxplots can be used to display the whole of an inspection history in one view. In this example a normalised view allows all schedules of pipe to be compared. Boxplots can also be used to provide a quick overview of long-term trends (up or down) and can show stability over several years or highlight changes graphically that cannot be seen from data alone, due to spreads and errors affecting judgement.
The illustrated example shows a downward long-term trend indicative of increased corrosion activity. It provides context and a jump in the final result, indicating replacement of the pipe. Data can also be grouped for pipes by diameter which can show that larger pipes seem to have more corrosion issues than smaller ones, or by pipe configuration feature type such as bends, caps, reducers, or straight sections to search for trends.

Corrosion rates determined from Non Destructive Testing ( NDT) generally trend toward wall loss percentile values as the principal criteria. Looking at group trends mitigates measurement error and gives more accurate short and long-term corrosion rate estimates. Any point showing a concerning trend can be extrapolated to predict when an alarm limit may be reached. Corrosion rate data can be plotted in different ways to try and identify issues such as localised and unusual corrosion rates. Lots of data on wall thickness measurement may just behave in a linear sense such as presented here for selected years and locations – nothing unusual is shown and general corrosion is happening at expected rates.

Sonomatic have developed 3 different inspection planning methodologies. The Type 2 methodology was further discussed with steps detailed below:

• Define corrosion state (is it what we expect to find)
• Define a corrosion coverage from previous results
• Define extent of corroded material
• Define thresholds of concern (based on historic results)
• Consider points flagged as over/under inspected
• Consider expected corrosion mechanisms that have a bearing on applied technique
• Define detection threshold
• Define probability of detection (POD)
This approach is underpinned by simple and effective access to the data, which is linked to a 3D mini digital twin.
The mini-Twin also hosts a variety of data, as well as individual test points, corrosion maps, and can house inspection histories, photographs, and further data analysis of corrosion rates, fitness for service etc. 3D is used to present data in efficient ways to quickly provide an overview of the health of the pipework circuit, for example inspection frequency, inspection count, corrosion rates, all of which is valuable information for engineers and asset stakeholders.
For identified ‘Dropped Object’ hazards: the item can be encased using GRP wrap + Chartek 7E paste filler at 2mm or an encasement system pipe shell or epoxy box is used with product Chartek/Benarx, for which there are simple procedures (see image below).
Systems were also discussed for upgrading 3 sided beams using either Chartek 2218 at a 6mm thickness level to primed steel areas and overlapping the cementitious edges either side, or alternatively MP can be used and applied to steel surface prepared to SP11 finish. This material can be rolled out at a 30 mm layer thickness that adheres to the prepared steel. This solution is good for support beams for walkway grating supports.
Studies were also presented on fire testing of the repaired products to given standards.
Fire Testing of Repaired Products
The fire performance of both Interkote MP and SFR has shown excellent fire performance (in some cases better) than the in-situ LWC or concrete.  IK MP was verified in EPFP testing (TN to update). Technical note F_021 may be deployed to select the best repair solution to meet fire protection requirements.
AkzoNobel’s PFP repair solutions extend the available range of Chartek solutions for maintaining damaged or failing PFP. The focus is on simple repairs to damaged LWC and concrete PFP (EPFP to be added for IK MP) for application simplicity and cost-effectiveness. The intention is to give customers confidence that repair solutions will provide the required fire resistance and repair integrity. All the repair solutions are backed up by third party approvals.
The branch held its AGM on June 27, 2023, and unanimously elected Adesiji Anjorin MSc, BEng, CEng, MICorr, MNSE, COREN of ENGTEQ as its next Branch Chair and Mei Ling Cheah AMPP Certified Corrosion Specialist, BEng MSc PhD CEng CSci FIMMM FICorr, of IMRANND as
its new Vice Chair.
The branch was sorry to see the departure of its 3 times Chair, Dr Muhammad Ejaz, PhD, CEng, FICorr, FIMMM, AMPP Corrosion Specialist, after 13 years of service, and a presentation will be made to him at a later date, once he has settled into his new home in Abu Dhabi.
On the same day, the branch also held an online event entitled – Direct Assessment for Unpiggable Pipelines, which covered both Internal and External Corrosion threats, and was led by Dirk L.Van Oostendorp.
Dirk is Director of Engineering and Technical Services for Corrpro, based in Houston, TX and Van Oostendorp has more than 40 years of global experience in all aspects of pipeline and structural integrity, encompassing cathodic protection, corrosion control, material selection, protective coatings, inspection technologies, and risk assessment. More recent experience includes integrity monitoring, failure analysis, and pipeline integrity issues. He holds undergraduate and graduate degrees in chemical technology and physical chemistry. He is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Chemistry, a Fellow of the Institute of Corrosion, and a NACE Corrosion Specialist. He was a member of the original INGAA-Battelle team that developed what has now become the Direct Assessment Methodology (DAM).
This presentation discussed the four essential steps of the Direct Assessment methodology, highlighted success factors, shared results from actual projects, and assessed the various challenges that can be encountered during implementation.
The majority of North American natural gas transmission pipelines were not constructed to permit inspection using intelligent tools (ultrasonic, magnetic flux leakage). This was due to the lack of launching and receiving facilities, but also throughput requirements, varying (telescopic) diameters, short radius or wrinkle bends, reduced port valves, or branch connections. In order to adequately ensure the structural integrity of these pipelines, some alternative forms of condition determination and evaluation was required. The Interstate Gas Association of America, together with the
Gas Technology Institute, assembled an expert team to address this
issue. The result was the development of an alternate inspection methodology, coined Direct Assessment, which made use of a combination of proven techniques.
Based on Federal laws signed in 2001, pipeline operators in the USA were required to develop a proactive Pipeline Integrity Management Plan (IMP) intended to manage risk and protect the public in areas near operational pipelines. Inline inspection (ILI) was the preferred methodology to inspect pipelines, and hydrostatic testing was the alternative.
AMPP, as the industry representative, was called upon to develop standard procedures to govern the correct implementation of Direct Assessment and provide guidance for practitioners. Early in the development process, it was noted that the methodology needed to be segmented, in order to address differing integrity threats, and External Corrosion Direct Assessment (ECDA), Internal Corrosion Direct Assessment (ICDA), and Stress–Corrosion Cracking Direct Assessment (SCCDA) resulted. NACE initially published RP0502 for ECDA in 2002, and other standard practices for the other methodologies followed. As living documents, these standard practises are subjected to peer review every 4–6 years.
Dirk very clearly explained the details of the processes now being followed and how supplementary investigations may come into play as the assessment proceeds.
Both the AGM and the June presentation were fully recorded and are available at: https://youtu.be/B9_4DHySnmg and at ICorr Aberdeen – YouTube
Abstracts of potential papers for the Aberdeen Technical Programme are always welcome, and anyone wishing to present should correspond with the 2023/2024 Technical Programme Co-ordinator: Adesiji Anjorin anjorin@gmail.com
Further Information about the Aberdeen Branch, and past presentations, may be found on their website page: Aberdeen Branch – Institute of Corrosion (icorr.org) and to join the Aberdeen Branch mailing list, please contact: icorrabz@gmail.com
The Branch has the following upcoming conference event for which attendance is strictly limited to 50 persons: This Event will include a number of Practical Demonstrations.
On 22nd August, the branch will hold its Corrosion Awareness Day at Rysco, Bridge of Don, Aberdeen, from 9-5pm
Attendees (and their respective companies) will gain an understanding of the fundamentals of corrosion science and engineering; which can give insights into technical corrosion / materials challenges, improve their understanding of corrosion processes, raise their awareness of corrosion management, and provide confidence to attendees when discussing corrosion-related issues and concerns; and sales people will gain insights into the corrosion problems and needs of their customers by enabling relevant technical conversations with clients regarding corrosion issues.
Registration for this Event closes on 15th August 2023.
Please see the ICorr Events Calendar for all the latest information.
TABLE:
ITEM F EXISTING PFP / SUBSTRATE DEFECT / ANOMALY TYPE
Concrete Or Cementiltious PFP / Carbon SteelDropped Object Hazard
Repair System Installation Photos/Drawings Limitations / Notes
Chartek 7E
& GRP Overwrap a) Damaged/loose concrete/cementitious should be left in place.
b) Cut the GRP material so that there is a minimum 50 mm overlap around the perimeter of the section being wrapped.
c) The GRP should be pulled tight around the damaged PFP and then left to cure. Cure time is dependent on good light levels which should be between 1-2 hours. Any top protective layer should be removed to leave a matt surface finish.
d) Once the GRP is fully , apply Chartek 7E at minimum 2 mm directly to the matt surface of the GRP. No primer required. Refer to the GRP manufacturers manual for application instructions.
Benarx Boxes & Pipe Shells a) Damaged/loose concrete/cementitious should be left in place.
b) The Benarx box/pipe shell can be fitted around the loose PFP and held in place using integral toggle & latch fasteners or stainless steel bands. Installation of Benarx solutions will require accurate measurements to ensure
correct fit.
CAPTIONS:
David Wickham and Chris Fyfe of AkzoNobel.
PFP Interkote Repair Solutions – Site in Belgium.
Failed LWC on vessel skirt.
Cut out defective LWC Simplehand application of KSFR.
Interkote SFR finished repair.
Interkote SFR@50/28mm Concrete/LWC repair –jet fire testbox.
InterkoteSFR –post jet firetest.
IMAGE Left to Right – Aberdeen Committee Members at June AGM – Mei Ling Cheah – New Branch Vice Chair, Yunnan Gao – ICorr Vice President, Nigel Owen – External Secretary, Lian Ling Beh – Internal Secretary, Leela Ramachandran – University Liaison & CPD Officer, Adesiji Anjorin – New Branch Chair and Stephen Tate – ICorr President.
Dirk L. Van Oostendorp, Director of Engineering and Technical Services for Corrpro.
Upcoming Events from the Aberdeen ICorr Branch

Upcoming Events from the Aberdeen ICorr Branch

Aberdeen Branch

Aberdeen events coming up in October and November 2022 include:

  • 25/10/2022 – Dene Halkyard (Flexitallic) will present Flange Face Corrosion in Seawater and Hydrocarbon Environments related to Gasket Material Selection. ICorr Aberdeen Technical Event (Zoom Mtg) Start 18:00: Finish at 19:30.
  • 16/11/2022 – Prafull Sharma (CorrosionRADAR) will talk on The Era of Remote Corrosion Monitoring. Joint ICorr Aberdeen Technical Event (Zoom Mtg) with Joint Meeting with IOM3/MIS. Start 18:00: Finish at 19:30.
  • 24/11/2022 – YEP 2022 Final Presentation – Case Study Competition. Palm Court Hotel, 81 Seafield Rd, Aberdeen AB15 7YX. Start 16:00: Finish at 20:00.

ICorr HQ will notify all ICorr Members shortly of Event Details / Registration Details.

To join the Aberdeen Branch Mailing List, please contact: icorrabz@gmail.com

See also our Aberdeen Linkedin Page: https://www.linkedin.com/in/aberdeen-icorr/?originalSubdomain=uk

 

Annual Corrosion Forum 2022: Energy Transition

Annual Corrosion Forum 2022: Energy Transition

Aberdeen Branch

yOn Tuesday 30th August 2022, the Institute of Corrosion Aberdeen Branch held its 2022 Annual Corrosion Forum and was extremely well received. This was a comprehensive whole -day Event of Net-Zero related presentations by a range of industry experts superbly chaired on the day by Dr Olubayo Latinwo and raising nearly £3000 towards ICorr funds for future training programmes.

Presserv Ltd were the Key Sponsor for this event and during the day hosted a demonstration of their products and services, identifying what impact they could have on the energy transition market. Presserv Ltd were also kind enough to arrange the venue (Palm Court Hotel) and also provided catering services throughout the day.

The Event’s key goal was to identify materials, corrosion and asset integrity challenges we face, as we move into the new energy transition era.

ACF outcomes were an extremely useful technical insight for all Conference attendees, companies, duty holders, operators, asset managers and individuals who may wish to transition to greener solutions in the foreseeable future. Rarely are the topics of materials, corrosion and asset integrity the focus of energy transition talk’s and the Institute of Corrosion provided an excellent opportunity to prepare all for the relevant challenges ahead.

ACF Event Chair / ABZ Vice Chair
Dr Olubayo Latinwo


Branch Chair and Event Technical Coordinator
Hooman Takhtechian

Event Speakers and Extracts from their Talks

The Institute of Corrosion’s Approach to the Energy Transition Landscape

P1 Keynote Speaker, Bill Hedges – ICorr President

Dr Bill Hedges spoke from his combined 34 years’ experience in corrosion science, integrity management and engineering and in the oil & gas industry working for Exxon and BP. He was with BP for 24 years and left in 2020 to form his own consultancy business. His final role was as the Chief Engineer for Materials and Integrity Management. He has spent half of his career working in central engineering functions and half in operational locations in many countries worldwide with specific assignments in London, Houston, Trinidad and Alaska. These assignments have given him practical experience of integrity issues in onshore, offshore, deep-water, tropical, desert and arctic environments.

Bill holds a B.Sc. in chemistry and a Ph.D. in electrochemistry (lithium batteries) from the University of Southampton, UK and spent time as a researcher in the Bioengineering department at Oxford University, UK. He is a Chartered Engineer (CEng.), Chartered Chemist (CChem) and a Fellow of both the Institute of Corrosion (FICorr) and the Royal Society of Chemistry (FRSC). He has held director roles with the National Association of Corrosion Engineers (NACE) Foundation and the NACE Europe board. He has published 38 papers and in 2009 was awarded the NACE Fellow honour (FNACE).

The Roles of Corrosion Professionals during Energy TransitionP2

Muhsen Elhaddad – Former NACE Qatar Chair 

Muhsen has been working as a Corrosion and Well Integrity Engineer for more than 20 years where he is responsible for designing and implementation of corrosion policies and specifications for upstream, midstream and downstream operations. During his working tenure, Muhsen has contributed a great deal towards advancing the understanding, of transforming companies towards cleaner energies. Muhsen holds a BEng and MSc in material science, engineering and technology, from University of Qatar and is currently pursuing a PhD in electrochemistry, he spoke passionately about the need to have competent and engaging corrosion and materials professionals involved at all levels of the asset cycle from conception of the project to decommissioning.

People are known to be the heart of effective asset integrity management and only people can make effective asset integrity happen with their proactive approach, flexibility and the quick response. They must be knowledgeable, have the right competency, and the authority to act on their knowledge, expertise and experience. They should have the means to collaborate, share and communicate at all levels of the organization and take pride in their profession. This also requires change in mind set and understanding that a job is not for a salary it is a profession that a corrosion professional need to embrace and practice fully.

Material Constraints and safety assessments in conversion of existing natural gas pipelines for hydrogen transport

P3 Frank Cheng – University of Calgary

Dr. Frank Cheng is a Professor and Canada Research Chair in Pipeline Engineering at the University of Calgary. Frank is an internationally recognized researcher in Energy Pipeline Technology, specializing in pipeline corrosion and cracking, integrity management, and new energy transport systems. His talk provided technical background about hydrogen embrittlement (HE), detailing unique features of the problem associated with high-pressure gaseous environments and the additional challenges of the conversion of existing “aged” gas pipelines for hydrogen service. These include corrosion and mechanical defects serving as hydrogen traps, pre-strain induced by pipe-soil interaction to increase the HE susceptibility, competitive adsorption of impurity gases with hydrogen gas on steel surface, and preferential accumulation of hydrogen atoms and the resulting cracking at pipeline welds.

Technical gaps were analysed, and recommendations provided for both research community and industry to develop a technical assessment program for the suitability of existing pipelines for hydrogen transport. Hydrogen, as a green and zero-emission fuel, has received wide attention recently. Hydrogen delivery is integral to the entire value chain of hydrogen economy, where pipelines provide an economic and efficient means to transport hydrogen.

Challenges in assessing corrosion resistance of pipeline steels in dense phase CO2

P4 Shravan Kairy – NPL

Dr Shravan Kairy is a Higher Research Scientist at National Physical Laboratory, UK. His current research is focused on understanding the corrosion of pipeline steels in dense phase CO2 and developing a standard test method. In his presentation, Shravan provided a comprehensive overview of the most common experimental methodologies used to assess corrosion of pipeline steels in dense phase CO2. Key factors that influence corrosion of pipeline steels in dense phase CO2 during service and the challenges of incorporating these factors into experimental methodologies were discussed. The current industry understanding of corrosion of pipeline steels in dense phase CO2 and recommendations on future directions was also provided.

Transportation of carbon dioxide (CO2) is essential for the storage of captured anthropogenic CO2 at dedicated locations, such as depleted oilfields. Pipeline transport of dense phase CO2, i.e., in the liquid or supercritical phase, enables cost effective high throughput transport. Understanding the factors controlling corrosion of pipeline steels in the dense phase CO2 environment is necessary for qualifying pipeline materials for service and establishing reliable and cost-effective impurity threshold specifications.

Challenges in Corrosion Protection for offshore wind Foundations

P5 Anthony Setiedi – Wood Thistled

Dr. Setiadi FICorr has a strong track record of delivering technical and project management roles throughout 20 years in the industry and academia. His work has primarily been in the offshore oil and gas industry prior to the transition to offshore wind. He is currently the Chief Consultant at Wood Thilsted where he is responsible for the corrosion protection design for numerous offshore wind developments in the UK, Europe and USA. He argued that a corrosion protection strategy needs to be developed and agreed well in advance, which then needs to be followed through to completion, including input to Operation and Maintenance Strategy to ensure that structural integrity is not compromised throughout design life.

This presentation primarily focussed on monopile foundations and the design considerations that would need to be taken onboard. Monopiles have both internal and external surface needing protection. Much thought must be given to the level of protection needed and consideration of the impact to structural integrity throughout the design life, and how fabrication, transport and installation limitations would affect the corrosion protection design. Coating requirements and different cathodic protection systems (i.e. Galvanic and ICCP) were discussed for the internal and external challenges regarding positioning of the CP system and installation concerns that need to be taken into account offshore during the installation phases.

Challenges for selecting protective coatings for fixed and floating offshore wind industry

P6 Simon Daly – Safinah Group

Simon Daly B.Eng (Hons) is an AMPP-certified Senior Corrosion technologist and a professional member of ICorr with over 30 years’ experience in the protective coatings field and a consultant with Safinah. His talk highlighted how Corrosion issues within existing fixed wind turbine facilities have necessitated coating requirements more extensive than previously foreseen. Different long term performance requirements, couples with increased productivity to meet offshore renewables targets means that coating selection must be very carefully considered especially with the increasing number of Floating structures.

Offshore wind turbine structures are exposed to environments with high salinity, high levels of UV radiation, the presence of cathodic protection and other factors such as tidal influences. As well as the offshore turbines themselves, larger offshore structures such as transformer stations may have more extensive coating requirements including the need for passive fire protection. As the industry transitions to floating structures designs may also have the challenges associated with marine fouling as well as more extensive coating work scopes.

Challenges in Tokamak-type fusion reactor

P7 Joven Lim – UK Atomic Energy Authority

Joven Lim BEng (Hons), DPhil (Oxon), MIMMM, MInstP is a core member of Reactor Chemistry and Materials Research Working Group of GE Hitachi Nuclear Energy, an experienced nuclear materials scientist with an engineering background. He gave an overview of the Tokamak-type fusion reactor design, the potential list of coolants can be used and why, and the expected corrosion challenges from the extreme environment in the fusion reactor. The speaker also provided some insights on the criteria used for materials selection, corrosion management & mitigation strategy currently being developed for UK STEP fusion programme that aim to deliver a prototype fusion energy plant, targeting 2040 [https://step.ukaea.uk/].

With the increase of national interest to focus on developing and deploying clean energy and ensuring a good energy mix for the future, Fusion power plant is one of the ideal candidates. Fusion reactors do not generate carbon dioxide or other greenhouse gases into the atmosphere. Its major by-product is helium gas. Nuclear fusion reactors do not produce high activity, long-lived nuclear waste. The recent record-breaking 59 megajoules of sustained fusion energy demonstrates potential of fusion to be part of the future energy mix at world-leading Joint European Torus facility, a Tokamak-type fusion reactor design, in Oxford, UK [https://www.euro-fusion.org/news/2022/european-researchers-achieve-fusion-energy-record/].

Corrosion challenges and related opportunities in Arduous next generation low carbon energy systems: Solar and Nuclear Energy Context

P8 Frederick Pessu – University of Leeds

Dr Frederick Pessu is Lecturer in Corrosion, and is based Institute of Functional Surfaces, University of Leeds. He holds a B.Eng degree in chemical engineering, MSc. (Eng) and PhD in Corrosion Engineering and has been working in the areas of corrosion science and engineering since 2009. His research interests have been focused on fundamental understanding and characterisation of material performance in arduous corrosion systems, including renewable and low carbon energy production systems that support energy de-carbonisation, e.g. 1. Molten salts corrosion in Concentrated Solar Power Generation Plants (CSP) and Molten Salt Reactors (MSR). 2. Pitting and overall corrosion in CO2/H2S – containing energy systems; including high scaling geothermal systems.

His presentation highlighted the corrosion challenges in the new frontier of low carbon and renewable energy generation; Solar and nuclear energy sources have shown the greatest promise in our efforts to meet global climate change target. Electricity generation from solar and nuclear irradiation can be achieved using concentrated solar power (CSP) technologies and Gen IV molten salt nuclear reactors (MSR).

Selection of coating material in oil and gas industries and use of advanced coating processes for corrosion protection in present industrial scenario.

P9 Urvesh Vala – Chiyoda Ltd India

Dr Urvesh Vala is presently working as Head, Material Engineering & Technology, L&T Chiyoda LTD. India.

Cross country pipelines and plant piping play vital role for fluid, gas and water transportation which is mainly underground and protective coating with cathodic protection provides more than 25 years of corrosion protection. Protective coatings are the prime method being used globally considering the feasibility, cost and expected service life for onshore and offshore equipment and structures. Coating such as Fusion bonded epoxy, 3-layer polyethylene, polypropylene, modified epoxy, polyurethane, cold applied bituminous, polyethylene tape is most widely used coating for underground piping. Urvesh highlighted in his talk the prime factors for coating system selection – Type of material to be protected / Service temperature / Type of service i.e. open to atmosphere, under insulation, internal/immersion, buried, under fireproofing / Feasibility for maintenance of coating / Expected life.

The use of magnetic probe couple to augment existing equipment and technology.

P10 Jonathan Francis – Trac Energy

Jonathan Francis BSc. (NDT) is a practically minded individual with 3 decades of experience in non-destructive testing within the oil and gas industry with formal qualifications in 5 core NDT methods, Ultrasonics, Radiography, Eddy Current, Magnetic particle and Dye penetrant inspection. Jonathan holds a Bachelor of Science degree in NDT and is in his fourth year of a part-time PHD researching the reliability of manual ultrasonic testing.

Despite the advances and proven reliability of automated ultrasonics (AUT) Manual ultrasonic testing (MUT) is still widely relied upon in industry and has the inherent capability to detect wall loss and give quantifiable data on thickness of components with the data used to ensure plant and equipment can continue to run safely, but the current body of literature shows a host of human factors that can affect MUT performance. The use of a magnetic probe coupler (MPC) is proposed that will aid the task and the inspector in carrying out a reliable MUT inspection. It will do this by ensuring that probe coupling is maintained to the Carbon Steel surface when working in a variety of positions while improving the tactility of scanning a component. It will greatly aid the monitoring of known areas of wall loss by ensuring that the probe is coupled consistently and accurately in the same position.

The Institute of Corrosion Aberdeen Branch gratefully acknowledges the support of all participants and the ICorr HQ Admin Team. Event photos may viewed at https://1drv.ms/u/s!Ajj3m1kM8SgPrj_TTl_bylOPF1LB?e=EfsRMM

ICORR Aberdeen’s 2022 Annual Corrosion Forum (ACF) – 30th August 2022

ICORR Aberdeen’s 2022 Annual Corrosion Forum (ACF) – 30th August 2022

Aberdeen Branch, Industry News

We are very pleased to announce ICORR Aberdeen’s 2022 Annual Corrosion Forum (ACF) will be held on Tuesday 30th August 2022.  Please note that this year’s topic is focused on Energy Transition and Presserv Ltd  https://presserv.com/uk/ are the kind sponsor of this key event.  We are also proud to announce a special guest, Bill Hedges, President of the Institute of Corrosion as Keynote Speaker, (please see full day programme attached for you).  For the first time, the annual corrosion forum will be a HYBRID event and can be attended in person or virtually via a Zoom.

The venue for those wishing to attend in person will be local to Aberdeen, UK and will be communicated in due course.  There will be an early bird discount for those who register before* 1st August 2022.  There will also be a discount for attendees who are Members of ICorr. Simply supply your membership number with your application to be eligible.

Pricing details are summarised below:

Attendance Type

Regular Pricing

 

ACF Early Bird*/

ICorr Member
In Person

£149.99+VAT

 

£74.99+ VAT

(Discount Offer)
Virtual £74.99 + VAT

£39.99 + VAT

(Discount Offer)

All proceeds will support the continued work of ICorr as a leading authority on Corrosion and provider of Corrosion Prevention resources.

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We trust this event information is helpful. We look forward to your attendance.

Yours sincerely

Olubayo Latinwo
ICorr Aberdeen Branch Vice Chair”

Latest news from Aberdeen Branch

Latest news from Aberdeen Branch

Aberdeen Branch, Institute News, Uncategorized

The branch held a joint technical meeting with TWI Scottish Branch on 28th September where the speaker, Matthew Beatty from Sonomatic Ltd. discussed “In-service ultrasonic tank floor inspections”.

As described below, Sonomatic have developed an advanced system of robotic instrumentation and associated test procedures which can be used to inspect storage tanks while still in service. The instrumentation can easily navigate tank floors and using ultrasonic techniques (UT), measure the remaining through floor plate thickness, detecting both product side and soil side corrosion. From this, the remaining useful life of the tank can be determined by comparing this with the minimum containment thickness criteria for the vessel.

Desludging of tanks is performed during the measurement process as it is essential that the robot has a clean surface to make the measurement, and obtain good and reliable data. This is by done by either pumping sludge away within the tank, or pumping sludge out of tanks into containers for recycling or filtering and return. The inspection process can extend to survey tank shell walls and roof, annular plates and shell to floor welds using ultrasonics techniques.

Two main ultrasonics techniques are commonly used; (1) Short-range ultrasonics (SRUT) for features such as,

• Tank floor annular plate testing

• Testing concrete coated interfaces

• Testing under pipe supports

• Tank dyke piping interfaces

• Under vessel supports

and (2), Multiplexed phased array UT (PAUT) for the shell to annular plate weld inspection, and to  assess the condition of the internal and external weld (for cracking particularly).

Acoustic emission (AE) can be used to scan the floor for active corrosion prior putting the robot into the tank.

The robots deployed for the inspection are dependent on the tank media content and the accessibility. A hydraulic driven robot is used for heavy to light hydrocarbons and a mini ROV swimmer is used mainly in water tanks. Survey robots are fitted with hydraulic pumps and scrappers to remove sludge and sediment and clean the surface ready for ultrasonic work. All robots have safety systems and monitor critical items such as oxygen and nitrogen pressure through the umbilical and can automatically shut down power at alert safety levels.

For inspections, the robot is lowered through a deployment manway using a tripod and winch system to the tank bottom and connected back to the control room through a tailored sealed temporary manway cover. Finally, the tank is purged and pressurised.

The ultrasonic probes used have a range of diameters from 8mm up to 300mm total coverage and are typically arranged in an array of around 30 probes which speeds up the scanning process and makes data more reliable.

A case study was presented of a detailed in-service inspection of an 80 metre diameter tank with known corrosion. Acoustic emission was used first to check 100% of the tank for ongoing corrosion signs. With the robot deployed the sludge was displaced by suction pump and a rubber scraper to remove surface sludge.This inspection used a total of 521 scans, representing 5% coverage of tank base. The sampling methods and statistical analysis allow for limited coverage inspection so there is no need to inspect 100% of features. With the in-built ultrasonics, in this instance which used 8 transducers with amplitude variation across each transducer, the min thickness found was 4.8mm compared with the nominal thickness of 7mm, which gave an estimated remaining life of 2 years before an out of service inspection was required. After shutdown 3 years later, the floor thickness was confirmed to be 2.20 mm versus a predicted 2.53mm from in-service inspection, a <5% difference between the two methodologies which is considered an accurate and successful prediction compared with manually performed UT readings.

The accuracy of the predictive system using the in-service data illustrated that robotic inspection of the tank floor is a viable alternative to costly shutdown and out-of-service inspection.

The branch October meeting featured an interesting online talk from Professor Y. Frank Cheng. University of Calgary (UoC), entitled “Internal corrosion of pipelines: mechanisms, modelling and management”.

Internal corrosion of pipelines is a complex phenomenon, and the complexity arises from the fact that multiple chemical and electrochemical reactions occur simultaneously with numerous interrelated factors affecting the corrosion processes. A fundamental understanding of the phenomenon is essential to modelling, prediction and management of the corrosion processes, providing recommendations to industry for improved pipeline integrity management.

Currently, pipelines for oil and natural gas are the conduit for around 55% of energy transport and, despite the rise of renewables and net-zero targets, they will still be utilised for a similar amount of energy transportation when H2, CO2 and biogas gain in popularity. For oil and gas transport, the upstream ‘gathering’ pipelines which run from production to the upstream processing plants are the subject of interest here. Of course, the corrosion issues in different sectors of the pipeline system can be very different due to the product being carried and the internal environment. In upstream gathering lines within Alberta in 2019, 46% of the corrosion issues were deemed to be due to internal corrosion alone.

Multiple factors affect the corrosion process, including fluid chemistry, operating conditions and pipe geometry. To deal with the complex issues it is important that computer models take into consideration each of these factors, and study each of the key parameters, reaction chemistry, fluid hydrodynamics and configuration, so as to produce a workable model which will realistically predict the corrosion outcome.

The UoC initially developed a thermodynamic model to determine the electrochemical anodic and cathodic reactions occurring during internal corrosion of pipelines under given conditions, and the chemical reactions (for instance CO2) occurring during electrochemical cathodic (evolution of gas) and anodic reactions (at the steel oxidation). The internal corrosion involves the formation of iron carbonate scale on the surface which changes the corrosion rate. When H2S is also introduced there are competing reactions with CO2, which further complicate the outcome.

For the chemical reactions they derived the reaction equilibrium constants and for the electrochemical reactions calculated the standard electrode potentials by Gibbs free energy and determined partial reaction potentials by the Nernst equation.

Fluid hydrodynamics plays a critical role in influencing corrosion, so studies were conducted by fitting electrodes flush with the inside pipe walls at straight and angled positions to measure corrosion rate with flow and with impingement angle to the pipe wall. Other effects that were incorporated in the flow model were the inhibitive effect of the hydrocarbon oil phase and the erosive effect of inorganic sand and solids.

Another consideration for UoC modelling was the organic acid that is always part of the fluid in upstream hydrocarbon pipelines and which will attack the iron carbonate film which readily forms on the inner walls of the pipe. The scale builds faster with higher CO2 and temperature but, when the FeCO3 scale is broken locally at a defect, this leads to pitting corrosion under the scale and can lead to accelerated attack and leaks in pipeline walls. Pitting corrosion also occurs under sand layers which settle on the pipe floor from the high upstream sand concentration in the oil sand.

The final and possibly greatest issue in oil pipeline corrosion was determined as internal microbial corrosion which is believed to be responsible for ~ 40% of all internal corrosion events in pipelines. Microbial Corrosion occurs under any deposit mixture of petroleum sludge, sands, water microorganisms and corrosion. Internal operating environments encourage growth of the microbial population products. However, in the case of gas pipelines a thin layer of water condensate occurs on the chilled wall of the pipe which makes the formation of biofilms difficult and the deposit of corrosion films more favourable, so there is a competition between the two effects.

Several predictive corrosion models have been developed from the experimental studies of parameters and mathematical relationships, and these UoC models can assist in identifying critical corrosion locations, especially pitting and erosive corrosion on a long-distance pipeline, then predict the pitting corrosion rate and pitting growth rate, however corrosion mitigation and control by operators should not rely on inhibitors and biocides as they are not a totally satisfactory solution and periodic pigging is still required as main method of control in removing and reducing deposits and sludge.

This very comprehensive presentation generated much interest from the audience and many questions that were expertly responded to by the author.

Slides of technical papers for Aberdeen branch events, along with their respective Q&A’s can be found at, https://sites.google.com/site/icorrabz/ and also at Aberdeen Branch – Institute of Corrosion (icorr.org) under Local Technical Programme. A library of event recordings may also be found at:

https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=ICorr+Aberdeen