Methods PREVENT EXTERNAL PIPELINE CORROSION
WHAT IS A PIPELINE?
Pipelines are precisely what their name implies. Mission-critical, carbon steel pipelines can be above ground or buried several feet underground. The pipe may sweat, leading to a more rapid rate of pipe corrosion, or the pipe may require insulation. Pipeline systems fall into one of three categories – transportation, gathering, or distributing.
Today we’re going to focus on the external parts and pipelines made of carbon steel, how corrosion impacts those carbon steel pipelines, and how to protect pipelines from corrosion and keep the pipelines – and the people they serve – safe.
Globally, there are?2 million?miles of pipeline in 120 nations. The United States has 65% of those miles. The following two closest countries are Russia with 8% and Canada with 3%.
In the United States, a vast array of Federal and State agencies oversees pipelines and their safety. An example of the advantage of such oversight is the transparency in identifying?are in a geographic region and seeing what they are transporting.
WHAT DO PIPELINES CARRY?
Pipelines deliver a wide variety of materials, including:
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WHAT IS PIPELINE CORROSION?
For this article, we will focus on the externals of a pipe. External corrosion announces itself when the typical three-layer paint protective coating systems fail. The easy failure of paint systems allows the environmental conditions (air, moisture, and salts) to begin their negative impact on the carbon steel pipe materials.
Research is abundant about the various types of carbon steel corrosion
Corrosion is about the chemical imbalance created when a carbon steel atom loses an electron and bonds with oxygen to restore the charge imbalance.”
HOW TO PREVENT EXTERNAL PIPELINE CORROSION??
The answer to pipeline corrosion protection is to prevent it before corrosion occurs. The current three-coat paint protection systems mechanically lay on the metal surfaces. As a result, the paint does nothing to indicate coating system failure until it’s too late. When an organically occurring scribe or scratch happens, the ambient air, moisture, and salt meet the carbon steel surface and begin the corrosive process.
For a sweating pipeline, the corrosion challenge becomes immediately apparent. The pipeline sweat is created because of the difference in the internal temperature and the ambient temperature. The condensation arrives on the external surface and runs down the sides of the round pipe. The very bottom of a pipeline suffers the highest corrosion rate because of the physics of water movement.
THE FUTURE OF PIPELINES
Whether for the oil and gas industry, water for a municipality, or various other fluids, pipelines are one of the safest ways to transport a significant number of raw and finished materials.
More and more people are talking about the individual, corporate, and global reduction of greenhouse gases (GHG) – those gases that trap heat into the Earth’s atmosphere. It’s nice to know that pipelines are powered primarily by electric pumps with?no GHG emissions. No GHG also means that neither the pipeline nor the pump station emits air pollution.