Industry News
Denmark and Germany have agreed to build a hydrogen pipeline between the two countries, which is expected to be operational by 2028. The pipeline is anticipated to both meet Germany’s anticipated 90 TWh hydrogen demand by the same year, as well as Denmark’s goal of producing 20 TWh of hydrogen from 4-6 GW of electrolyser capabilities. Denmark will be able to export excess hydrogen production under the deal to nations like Belgium, Germany, and the Netherlands, who have already indicated a desire to import green hydrogen as part of their ambitions for a green transition.
Source : Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Denmark
Pic: Gas Pipeline going through greenfield.
Industry News
INTEGRA Technologies, a market leader in controlled bolting, field machining, leak detection and prevention, engineered products, and ASME training, has been acquired by Flexitallic. According to the company, by acquiring INTEGRA, Flexitallic’s business will transform from a “Sealing Solutions” provider to a “Total Joint Integrity” provider. INTEGRA was formed over 30 years ago, and operates in Canada and the USA. The two businesses have a similar culture that is based on safety, quality, and exceeding client expectations.
Source: https://flexitallic.com/flexitallic-acquires-integra-technologies/
Institute News
The first of the series of YEP-AMPP Journals, by Christopher Slater, Project Engineer, STORK, Aberdeen, is given below.
The 2022 Young Engineer Programme (YEP) consisted of 9 evening lectures presented by specialists in their field, to provide technical competency and knowledge across the field of asset integrity to delegates, combining with the Aberdeen branch technical programme.
Subsea 7 loaned their training facility for this purpose. that were covered during the 2022 programme:
• Fundamentals of corrosion
• Cathodic protection
• Coatings and linings
• Corrosion under insulation / fire proofing
• Integrity management / fitness for service
• Materials / welding
• NDT and corrosion monitoring
• Production chemistry / chemical treatments
• Presentation skills
The case study presented a scenario whereby we were engaged by a mock integrity services contractor to advise an international company that is a newcomer to the operation of production facilities in the UK sector of the North Sea. This consisted of analysing the scenario and current integrity status of the pressurised systems on the mock platform through the evaluation of the provided data and performing an initial risk assessment to identify key threats to the mechanical integrity of the pressurised systems. The brief to develop our proposed application of a systematic methodology to manage corrosion and surveillance activities allowed for approaches to prolong service life, the use of innovative solutions, the assessment of material options for the new pipeline, and the possible impact of H2S on operations to be explored and practical experience of these aspects to
be achieved.
In the accumulating case study and later presentation, we were guided to develop this in a way that gave us valuable experience of approaching/dealing with the mock prospective client, including the production of an overall high-quality presentation with a balance of presentation skills and team coordination through presentation, all of which were developed through delivery and exposure to the task.
Throughout this programme, the technical lectures and opportunity for direct implementation of learnings from lectures have given me invaluable exposure to fields of asset integrity that I hadn’t previously been exposed to, as well as providing opportunities to develop further practical knowledge of aspects I am familiar with.
I believe that this programme has given me a stepping stone’ towards further progressing my career within asset integrity and has opened new career avenues on the back of it.
AMPP Member Leadership Development Programme
We all had the opportunity to enrol in AMPP’s Member Leadership Development Programme (MLDP) ahead of the conference. The intent of this programme was to provide enhanced leadership skills and training to members who may have an interest in serving in upper-level member leadership roles within the organisation in the future. The programme was led by Kim Ray, the Director of the EMERG Student Outreach Programme at AMPP, in partnership with Lauren Kaufman Blachman of Kaufman Blachman Consulting. The programme consisted of a series of learning sessions. On the Sunday preceding the conference, a full-day in-person event was organized, followed by five monthly online sessions. We have also participated in additional online meetings in which we, within groups of other participants on the programme, will later present the culmination of our work on a case study to the Joint Executive Committee of AMPP.
The leadership programme included training sessions that help provide a more in depth understanding of AMPP, its governance structure, the strategic plan, as well as its products, programmes, and services. In addition, participants would also intensify their own leadership skills with sessions in emotional intelligence, change management, communication skills, presentation skills, and much more. This special event kicked off on the first day of the conference. The morning session included an introduction to some members of the AMPP Joint Executive Committee and AMPP Chief Staff Officers who were available to come along to share their welcomes and provide positive insights into the programme. This initial in-person session, among other team building activities, included an Emotional Intelligence workshop providing a depth of personal insight in order to enhance our ability to use emotional intelligence to feel more positive and be a more effective influence throughout our personal and working lives. During this, there were several interactive break-out activities allowing for the opportunity to get acquainted with the American and other international participants and build relations that would be carried throughout the conference trip and furthermore into the rest of the MLDP programme.
This experience left me feeling much more confident to go forward with my leadership and management skills, as I was able to develop effective communication skills and an understanding of effective leadership. I feel much more confident going ahead as a leader to manage change. Also I have gained experience on how to navigate situations with heightened emotions effectively, being able to read a room and recognising what actions to take, through better emotional intelligence, depending on scenarios faced in professional and personal situations.
AMPP 2023 Conference + Expo
Due to the wide array of topics associated with materials protection (corrosion control and protective coatings), I planned my schedule to cover further development and advanced technologies in the field of plant inspection but also include a range of topics across the broader field. Kicking off on Sunday, the first day of the conference, proceedings consisted of a Coatings 101 workshop, which gave basic awareness of a typical protective coatings project, from understanding the need for a project and the selection of coating criteria to the unique challenges faced in the industrial coating industry. The afternoon consisted of a symposium on “Digital asset transformation: application of data science and analytics for corrosion management” – featuring a presentation on “eddy current array technologies, the utilisation of digital twin technologies for predictive corrosion and proactive management, and overviews of operators” developed holistic corrosion management software and dashboards. In the evening, we attended the opening reception for the conference. Monday included several symposia, including “Facilities integrity: day 1” (including presentations on tank linings and composite repairs), “Corrosion under insulation” (including presentations on the utilisation of on-line inspection and monitoring solutions for CUI management), and “materials and cost of corrosion” – including effective service forecasting assessments and initial material selection for the improved lifecycle and project costs. In the evening, we attended a meal with some senior ICorr members who attended the conference, including Stephen Tate (President), Gareth Hinds (Past President), Danny Burkle (CED Chair and past YEP attendee, from 2018’s winning team), and also Peter Elliot (former UMIST lecturer). Tuesday presented a busy day visiting symposiums on “sweet and sour corrosion”, “corrosion management”, “facilities integrity: Day 2”, “materials and integrity in oil sands”, “marine coatings and corrosion”. The most notable and interesting presentations I attended included a talk on “the importance of leadership in corrosion management” which stressed the importance of leadership as opposed to management in the success of a corrosion management programme. Another highlight was a presentation where a failure investigation was shared summarising the step-wise failure analysis to understand intergranular stress-corrosion cracking (IGSCC) failure mechanism observed for carbon steel pipelines and piping, believed to be related to the presence of mineral wool insulation of a certain vintage. Also included in these symposia was a presentation by one of our colleagues from the AMPP MLDP, a PHD student from Texas A&M University.
Tuesday evening was kicked off with a BP sponsored drinks reception, followed by the headlined EMERG Scholarship Awards Ceremony and Emerging Leaders Bash where we were presented with our certificates for the YEP programme. Wednesday was mainly focused on attendance of symposia on “Corrosion Protection in Offshore Wind” a topic that is new to myself but attendance provided great insight and learnings on the subject. This day also included the attendance to the Exhibition, sadly not making the putt for the chance to win a Scotty Cameron putter but was able to visit stands of a few of my company’s NDT equipment and condition monitoring suppliers for equipment demos. As part of the exhibition we also had the opportunity to get a walkthrough of paint inspection methods and equipment, and also visit the AMPP Student Poster presentations where a few of our colleagues from the MLDP were presenting.
On Thursday, the final day of the conference proceedings, symposia attended consisted of “Hydrotesting, Mothballing and Preservation” including failure investigations on stagnant lines and conclusion of presence of MIC, “Aboveground Storage Tank Bottom Cathodic Protection” including presentation on the findings of an off-line inspection and corrosion identification of a water storage tank and “Machine Learning for Corrosion Management” including overview of Ultrasonic Guided Wave techniques utilisation for machine learning for corrosion monitoring in Pipes. As part of the package for attending the Conference we also have access to the recorded sessions on-demand to revisit attended sessions or catch-up on sessions that we wished to attend but clashed with schedules at the time – so the takeaways from the conference are still very much ongoing, which is a huge benefit to my continued professional development. Through the exposure to a wide range of asset integrity innovations and in-development solutions, it has sparked a real interest to better understand these technologies and diversify my knowledge in subjects such as corrosion monitoring solutions and cathodic protection.
Conclusions
Overall, from the outset of the programme itself and the opportunities created following, the Young Engineer Programme has given so much exposure to field of corrosion, asset integrity and related topics. This has been such an invaluable experience, opening doors and my mind to further progression in my professional life.
Each aspect of this journey has afforded many networking opportunities to better integrate me as an individual in the asset integrity industry and develop professional relationships and rapports with subject matter experts in the fields of asset integrity.
I would like to thank ICorr, especially Yunnan Gao (ICorr’s Vice President), a former colleague at STORK and now with BP, for introducing me to the programme in the first place and would encourage any prospective candidates of the YEP programme to go for it and take hold of all the opportunities that are available from it.
ICorr Microbiologically-Influenced Corrosion (MIC) Courses
The next ICorr MIC course is scheduled for October at the headquarters in Northampton. MIC is one of the least understood corrosion phenomena, despite being responsible for a number of high-profile failures. The Aliso Canyon gas leak in 2015 was caused by external MIC rupturing a storage well and the civil lawsuits were settled for US$ 1.8 billion on 27/9/2021[1], on top of utility fines and the cost of repair and containment.
MIC phenomena affect all systems with even traces of water in most industries. Different microbial groups have been identified and are affecting most construction materials.
The ICorr course is the only MIC training programme that is certified by a recognised professional organisation.
Dates:
The awareness course is scheduled for 4/10/2024
The certified MIC technologist course is scheduled for 23/10 to 27/10/2024
Venue:
ICorr headquarters, Northampton, UK
Registration:
Email: admin@icorr.org
Telephone: +44 (0) 1604 438 222
(1) SoCalGas agrees to $1.8-billion settlement in 2015 gas leak – Los Angeles Times (latimes.com)
Institute News
AMPP 2023 VISIT – DENVER
The 2022 YEP programme was chaired during the year by Hooman Takhtechian FICorr, and has been previously documented at: https://www.icorr.org/young-engineers-programme-yep-winners-night/ and see also (24) Post | LinkedIn
AMPP 2023 VISIT – DENVER
The five winning YEP delegates listed below all attended the 2023 AMPP exhibition, full conference, and leadership programme. The Institute of Corrosion is extremely grateful to AMPP, and to BP (our key sponsor) for making this all possible. Each of the YEP participants has produced a comprehensive journal, and these will be published in subsequent issues of the magazine (the first appears in this issue), as we move towards the start of the YEP 2024 programme.
YEP delegates at AMPP in 2023 were:
• Christopher Slater
• Eilidh MacDonald
• Jamie Hillier
• Lee Hunter
• Praveena Nanthakumaran, (who was on the winning team for the 2020 YEP competition but was unable to attend at that time)
Rosie Bird (from the 2022 winning team) was unfortunately not able to go to the AMPP event this year but it has been agreed that she will attend AMPP in 2025, alongside the 2024 winning team.
During October 2023, the winning students will make a presentation of their experiences to Aberdeen branch, and this will be available to all ICorr members, as a hybrid event to which AMPP and Young ICorr members will be invited.
AMPP Retiring President
During the AMPP 23 event, a “thank you” plaque was presented to retiring AMPP CEO – Bob Chalker. Bob will be succeeded by Alan Thomas with a 2 month handover until July 2023.
The YEP wishes to express its gratitude to all the AMPP, BP and ICorr management teams, for their support and assistance provided for their 2023 visit, which was a huge success and greatly enjoyed by all. Some of the YEP winners’ comments are extracted here below, and their full journals will be published as space permits
YEP / AMPP – Delegate Feedback
• The YEP programme was a huge success. I developed my technical, communication, leadership, and teamwork skills, to a huge extent. I got to play so many different roles that I simply would not get exposure to during my usual day job as subsea engineer. At times I felt like a leader, a follower, a technical consultant, and a salesman. The value of the programme was really demonstrated to me through the opportunity to play these roles, (Jamie Hillier – Senior Subsea Engineer at Xodus Group, Aberdeen).
• If you are just starting your career as a young engineer and are interested in corrosion, I highly recommend applying for the ICorr’s YEP. It was an eye-opening experience. I have learned from SMEs in the industry, made fantastic friends along the way, and gained new and exciting opportunities through the programme. Additionally, the AMPP conference (and Leadership programme) winner’s prize, is incredibly valuable for knowledge transfer, networking, and potentially finding new clients or services for your company, (Praveena Nanthakumaran – Mechanical Engineering Graduate at Worley, London).
YEP – AMPP Visit prize – Leadership Programme / Conference / Exhibition / Awards
• On arrival at the event, we participated in a team building activity after being familiarised with the Drexler-Sibbet team performance model. This was a great way to get involved with other participants and build connections with them. The ‘carpet maze’ required us to work as a team to figure out the correct route to cross the mat without being able to talk to each other, in a limited time frame. This exercise was a practical way to teach us certain things that are directly applicable to the problems we face in a professional setting. Often, we just see our end goal, but to achieve this, mistakes will be made, side steps will need to be taken, and sometimes you even need to go backwards – it’s never just a straight route! (Eilidh MacDonald – Coatings Engineer at Subsea7, Aberdeen).
• The leadership programme experience left me feeling much more confident to go forward with my leadership and management skills, as I was able to develop effective communication skills. It gave me a good understanding of effective leadership, to make me feel much more confident going ahead as a leader to manage change. Also increasing my experience on how to navigate situations with heightened emotions effectively, being able to read a room and recognising what actions to take, through better emotional intelligence, depending on scenarios faced in professional and personal situations, (Christopher Slater – Project Engineer at STORK, Aberdeen).
AMPP 23 Conference – Participant Feedback
• I realised just how busy this conference was when I tried go to the Surface Preparation lectures – there wasn’t even standing room left! (Eilidh MacDonald – Coatings Engineer at Subsea7, Aberdeen).
• The AMPP seminars provided practical tips and strategies for overcoming challenges, and the opportunity to learn from industry experts was invaluable. I left the conference feeling inspired and motivated to apply the knowledge and insights I
had gained to my work, (Lee Hunter – Operations Manager at
AIM Group, Aberdeen).
AMPP 23 Exhibition – Participant Feedback
• Highlights of the exhibition for me were spending time discussing technologies on the market with various vendors. This included talking through pigging solutions to wax-filled pipelines, retrofit ICCP system solutions, and remote UT monitoring sensors. Being able to discuss these technologies and then bring back learnings from them into projects I’m working on would’ve been worth the trip to Denver alone, (Jamie Hillier – Senior Subsea Engineer at Xodus Group, Aberdeen).
• I was impressed by the diversity of the AMPP exhibitors and the range of products and services they offered. From coatings and corrosion protection solutions to equipment and instrumentation, the exhibitor hall had something for everyone, (Lee Hunter – Operations Manager at AIM Group, Aberdeen).
AMPP 23 Awards – Participant Feedback
• The EMERG Leaders Awards Ceremony at the Filmore in Denver, sponsored by BP was absolutely fantastic, and we were invited on stage to receive our ICorr YEP awards from Stephen Tate. It was also great to celebrate the achievement with the friends we had made on the MDLP earlier in the week, some of whom were also receiving awards that night. The atmosphere, the band, and the food (and drinks!) were great, and the night was definitely my highlight of the trip, (Eilidh MacDonald – Coatings Engineer at Subsea7, Aberdeen).
• The evening of entertainment and networking that followed the ceremony was a great opportunity to connect with like-minded professionals and learn from their experiences. Overall, it was a truly memorable event, and I feel privileged to have been a part of it, (Lee Hunter – Operations Manager at AIM Group, Aberdeen).
YEP 2024
We look forward, of course, to the next YEP competition, starting in January 2024, which will be managed by our very successful YICorr division, and take place in London. This 11-month programme provides a great opportunity for young engineers to expand their knowledge in corrosion management and engineering, and to combine it with their experience in energy and other industries.
The programme is designed to offer the following benefits:
1. Attendees will gain practical skills and knowledge on key issues in the energy industries, including Net-Zero technologies.
2. The lectures and workshops will form part of Continuing Professional Development (CPD) for the Institute of Corrosion. Additional attendance at local branch technical meetings will be encouraged where possible.
3. Attendees will develop teamwork and presentation skills from the workshops.
4. CPD points will contribute to participants’ progression to MICorr and Chartership.
5. Excellent opportunities for networking.
6. Increasing the skill level for engineers and decreasing the gap in knowledge between new and senior engineers, overall facilitating a better working environment within the sector.
All students will go through a series of evening lectures and be given a case study. Events will be held once a month from January to November (excluding August). Following is a list of the topics covered during the programme:
• Fundamentals of Corrosion • Cathodic Protection.
• Coatings & Linings
• Corrosion under Insulation/Fire Proofing
• Integrity Management / Fitness for Service
• Materials / Welding • NDT and Corrosion Monitoring
• Production Chemistry / Chemical Treatments
• Presentation Skills, (in the form of ‘How to solve a corrosion case study’ – This will cover the basics to presentation skills anecdotally but importantly teach the participants the keys to problem solving in the corrosion world)
James McGladdery will co-ordinate the next programme on behalf of YICorr, who can be contacted at:
James.McGladdery@uknnl.com, Tel: +44 (0)1946 556 600
Denver Conference Centre, Colorado.
YEP Winners, BP Sponsor and President at AMPP 2023 – (L to R),
Praveena Nanthakumaran, Eilidh MacDonald, Jamie Hillier, Timothy Bieri, Stephen Tate, Lee Hunter and Christopher Slater.
Presentation of the YEP Awards at the Filmore.
Plaque to Bob Chalker, retiring CEO of AMPP.
Ask the Expert
Question:
Why are coatings often supplemented with cathodic protection to protect against corrosion?
Answer:
Corrosion is one of the most critical failure mechanisms in structures, installations, components, and mechanical systems, in which materials go through decay or deterioration, which in turn compromises the integrity of these structures or systems. Deterioration is the cause of the formation of oxides, hydroxides, or sulphides, which are naturally more stable forms of any refined material. There are several reasons for corrosion to initiate and propagate, these include environmental and operational conditions, material properties, and electrochemical activation. Although several factors are involved in initiating and propagating corrosion, a key factor is the availability of an active metal surface, which incubates electrochemical changes leading to corrosion.
Therefore, the primary focus, as a cost effective, efficient, and reliable technique, is to convert the active metal surface areas into passive surface areas. This helps stop or decelerate corrosion, and can be done by providing a protective current, which in turn reduces the potential of a metal surface. This results in cathodic protection, hence stopping or significantly reducing electrochemical changes, in other words, any corrosive attack is halted. There are two conventional methods by which passivation of metal surfaces is achieved. These are commonly known as (i) sacrificial anode cathodic protection, and (ii) impressed current cathodic protection. The above methods have been widely used in several industrial applications, such as petrochemical, marine, and infrastructure. Another effective technique for mitigating corrosion is to use a coating. The coating acts as an anti-corrosive protective layer, a barrier, or a sacrificial layer over the metal. Coatings offer several benefits by protecting materials, enhancing surface characteristics, and avoiding or reducing the risks of failure. Corrosion, however, becomes more complex in terms of its failure mechanisms when structures and components are dynamically loaded as in marine structures. This will cause failures such as corrosion fatigue and stress corrosion cracking.
Or when static structures are exposed to more aggressive environments, corrosion and corrosion failures will significantly accelerate. The combination of both coatings and cathodic protection will enhance metal resistance against corrosion. Therefore, a combination of both is widely used. These preventative methods also assist at the design stage in reducing the required weight of material for required operating lifetime and can thus significantly reduce fabrication and later transport costs with net-zero type benefits.
A more complex corrosion mechanism will occur when components are dynamically loaded and are subject to relative motion. This adds more complexity to attempts at stopping or controlling corrosion, because other mechanical and physical factors are now combined and are contributing to a more complex form of deterioration. In such instances, the use or application of cathodic protection becomes complicated, challenging, and in some cases, it becomes almost impossible to meet specified CP criteria. Therefore, more robust methods of enhancing corrosion resistance through material development, advanced coatings and coating techniques, corrosion monitoring, and prognostic measures, have been developed over the past several years. It is more pragmatic to provide bespoke solutions for specific applications.
If the components are interacting, then surface wear will occur. In a scenario where corrosion is absent, the wear purely results from mechanical loading and surface deterioration. However, in the presence of corrosive species, corrosion will also occur. This leads to a wear-corrosion mechanism.
Recent Coating Developments
Researchers have been developing advanced coatings to withstand both corrosion and wear in challenging and harsh environmental and operational conditions subject to design life requirements. Recent developments in nanocoatings and nanocomposite coatings [5], have shown that more attractive coating solutions are available for applications in more complex mechanical and chemical conditions. These nanocomposite coatings are, for example, Ni/Al2O3, Ni/SiC, Ni/ZrO2, Ni/Graphene (GPL), and several others. Such coatings have been developed in order to be subjected to corrosion while incorporating the effects of key mechanical properties. These newly developed nanocomposite coatings have been tested according to ASTM B117,
salt spray testing [1].
Further study of the above nanocomposite coatings has been conducted within the wear context [2].
A comprehensive study of the above nanocoatings at atomic surface layers, incorporating corrosive fluids, and using a numerical approach, was conducted [3].
It is well known that the durability and reliability of complex interacting systems are very important from a cost viewpoint and within a wider sustainability context. These interacting systems are subject to corrosion failures and are therefore a major concern for industry professionals. It is important to fully diversify design parameters.
Remote Monitoring
Further work has been performed to predict corrosion in dynamically corrosive environments by considering physical and mechanical characteristics. Researchers have recently developed and patented a new corrosion sensor that could improve the safety and reliability of large structures such as bridges, aircraft, military vehicles, and gas pipelines. The device can detect defects and risks in major infrastructure at a much earlier stage than the methods that are currently used. As well as improving safety, it could reduce the need for time consuming repairs, which can come at a significant cost and inconvenience to industries and the public.
In summary, it evident that the primary objective of an industrial coating is to prevent corrosion, and to withstand a variety of hazardous chemicals. Choosing the right coating is just as important as choosing the coating itself, a wrongly specified coating can lead to a wide range of problems, from maintenance to premature failure. No coating is completely free of defects, even when freshly applied. Faults can occur during the production of the coating as well as during handling and improper application of the coating. A defect may also arise during the course of service. The most common causes of coating failures include inadequate surface preparation, a non-friendly environment, poor formulation, and an inefficient application technique. Coatings with high efficiency are more expensive. Thicker coatings, the use of sophisticated inspection methods, and fixing specific defects, all result in higher cost and critically weight. Sometimes it is advantageous to use another protection method to supplement coatings, which is why we use cathodic protection and especially in marine situations. There is an overall benefit when a good coating application is combined with cathodic protection [4].
Prof. Zulfiqar Khan, Bournemouth University NanoCorr, Energy & Modelling (NCEM) Research Group.
References
1. Nazir, M.H., Khan, Z.A., Saeed, A., Bakolas, V., Braun, W., Bajwa, R. and Rafique, S., 2017. Analyzing and modelling the corrosion behavior of Ni/Al2O3, Ni/SiC, Ni/ZrO2 and Ni/graphene nanocomposite coatings. Materials, 10 (11).
2. Nazir, M.H., Khan, Z.A., Saeed, A., Bakolas, V., Braun, W. and Bajwa, R., 2018. Experimental analysis and modelling for reciprocating wear behaviour of nanocomposite coatings. Wear, 416-417, 89-102.
3. Nazir, M.H., Khan, Z.A., Saeed, A., Siddaiah, A. and Menezes, P.L., 2018. Synergistic wear-corrosion analysis and modelling of nanocomposite coatings. Tribology International, 121, 30-44.
4. L.L. Sheir, R.A. Jarman, and G.T. Burstein; “Corrosion”, Volume 2: “Corrosion Control”, 3rd edition, Butterworth Heinemann, ISBN 0-7506-1077-8.
5. https://www.digitaljournal.com/pr/news/theexpresswire/nano-coating-market-by-2031
Continuity Straps across Flanges for providing Cathodic Protection.
