The importance of cathodic protection is linked with the corrosion of metals and the economic damage that comes out of that. To understand the importance of cathodic protection, we need to understand corrosion and its impact on the economy first.
Corrosion is one of the major contributors to the drainage of money and waste of economic resources in the whole world. It is the leading cause of pipe and tank failures. How does this affect the world economy or the economies of individual nations or groups of nations? To understand this, you have to know that a significant portion of the oil and gas trade in the world happens through long-distance gas and oil pipelines. A major portion of this pipeline is submerged under the water and hence they are susceptible to deterioration via corrosion eventually. This is concerning trade between countries. Even within countries, the transport of gas, oil, water, etc., happens through the medium of an elaborate network of long-distance pipelines. So, this is again affected by corrosion because the pipes are made of metal or metal alloy, making them quite susceptible. This means the world governments need to spend millions of dollars to keep the pipes intact, replace them, fix them, etc. This comes with an expenditure that keeps increasing over the years because of inflation. At the same time, it is not easy or cheap to fix 100s of miles of pipelines. The cost adds up as the size of the project grows. An effective and affordable way to manage the corrosion of a metal surface after it has been buried or submerged is cathodic protection.
Cathodic protection has been used increasingly by people, companies, enterprises, and organizations to protect these precious networks of oil and other resources, against corrosion. If the manufacturer is designing a system that will be submerged, then the environmental corrosion or the corrosion factor must be considered during the designing phase. In most cases, coatings and coverings are used to prevent corrosion. Coatings alone, however, are not enough to offer the pipes prolonged protection against corrosion. This is because it only acts as a first line of defense. And this does not last for too long in an environment that is underwater or underground all the time.
This is where cathodic protection systems come into the picture as these are enablers making sure that the pipelines are dependable and can be relied upon even under stress in hazardous environments. Cathodic protection systems offer the highest level of safety to the metal and alloy systems which are in these extreme environments and reduce the cost burden on the state concerning the maintenance of the infrastructure.
Everly Bell is the author of this website and has written articles for a long time. For further details about Cathodic Protection and Cathodic please visit the website.
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