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I am the Head of the Services delivery team in Cognite. The team I lead develops and delivers domain use cases based in CDF to our customers in O&G, manufacturing and renewables. I am going to focus here on what are the consequences of corrosion of industrial assets on the economy and the environment, as recently covered in a series of publications (see references section). 

The economic and environmental cost of corrosion is a significant issue and is much more severe than one could think. While several calculations methods have been used in various studies it is generally accepted that the direct costs of corrosion to the economy are equivalent to roughly 3–4% of a country’s gross domestic product (GDP) t1,2]. The main cost impact is due to the replacement of corroded steel in failing infrastructures (roads, railways, etc.) industrial equipment and buildings. As well, it has been qualitatively estimated that between 25 and 33% of the annual steel production is destroyed once in service by corrosion r3,4]. Studies show that the cost of corrosion in the United States was equivalent to 2.5% of GDP in 1949, growing until the sixties and then be more or less stable value of 3.2% in the 2000s and then rise again to recent years. This is due to the the advent of more efficient production methods which counterbalance an increasing demand for steel.
The cost of corrosion in China was estimated to be 3.34% of the GDP in 2017 equivalent to about 310 billion USD i5]. The transportation and electronics industries are the sectors that generate the highest costs, while mining, roads and bridges were the top two industries in terms of the percentages of corrosion costs as normalised by their respective gross product values. This is rationalised by the wide use of comparatively inexpensive (also less corrosion-resistant) materials, which leads to more rapid asset depreciation and high replacement costs. Together with the economic impact corrosion carries a significant environmental impact. 

 

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The Figure T6] shows the annual CO2 emissions generated by the steel industry and those resulting from steel corrosion. As indicated, the global steel production accounted for almost 3.8 GtCO2 in 2021, of which between approximately 560–1200 MtCO2 could be associated with the replacement of corroded steel. In 2021, steel production represented about 10.5% of the total global CO2 emissions, with corroded steel replacement accounting for 1.6–3.4%.

The world strive to comply with the greenhouse gases emission limits set by the Paris agreement. The global CO2 emissions of the steel industry would account alone for an impressive 27.5% of the 2030 target values if no actions are taken, with corroded steel replacement representing between 4.1 and 9.1% of the total emissions s6]. These numbers show how a management and mitigation of corrosion is going to be paramount not only for the economy and safety of the industry but also for achieving sustainability goals.  

Switching to stainless and special steels would help (as more resistant but also much more expensive to manufacture and replace) but it is likely not a solution. Although the production of costly stainless steels and other corrosion-resistant alloys (CRAs) containing chromium, nickel, and molybdenum, among other alloying elements, is more energy demanding and has higher carbon dioxide intensity values than carbon and low alloy steel production, their service life is usually much longer. As a result, the associated overall CO2 emissions of CRAs through the entire structure lifecycle are lower. Still, the production environments in the chemical industry are much more corrosive, and a comparison is therefore complex to perform.

Further savings could be realised by adopting new technologies and management strategies that take advantage of advancements in, e.g. inspections, big data analysis and machine learning approaches. These include the implementation of corrosion detection, monitoring and prediction (e.g. via drones and remote sensing), physics-guided ML corrosion models and ML-aided design of new materials and inhibitors l7]. Cognite has developed several solutions for corrosion monitoring and mitigation leveraging drones and advanced modelling, reach out to our team to know more about it. 

 

References

e1] Koch, G. H. et al. International measures of prevention, application, and economics of corrosion technologies study, (NACE International (AMPP), (2016).

e2] Bennett, L. H. et al. NSB Publication 511. Economic effects of metallic corrosion in the united states. Report No. NSB 511, (1978).

e3] Pourbaix, M. Lectures on Electrochemical Corrosion. (Springer US, 1973).

e4] Van Muylder, J. in Electrochemical Materials Science (eds. J. O’M Bockris, Brian E. Conway, Ernest Yeager, & Ralph E. White) 1-96 (Springer US, 1981).

a5] Hou, B., Li, X., Ma, X. et al. The cost of corrosion in China. npj Mater Degrad 1, 4 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41529-017-0005-2

a6] Iannuzzi, M., Frankel, G.S. The carbon footprint of steel corrosion. npj Mater Degrad 6, 101 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41529-022-00318-1

a7]  J. R. Scully, P. V. Balachandran; Future Frontiers in Corrosion Science and Engineering, Part III: The Next “Leap Ahead” in Corrosion Control May Be Enabled by Data Analytics and Artificial Intelligence. CORROSION 1 December (2019) 75 (12): 1395–1397. doi: https://doi.org/10.5006/3432

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