Cost of Corrosion project manager Gerry Koch

Results from a unique ambitious study are in. Corrosion costs in the United States. To the tune of about $300 billion a year. Now, for the first time in 25 years, a study of industry sectors summarizes and explains corrosion costs to all engineers and managers in the field of corrosion, and to the general public and policy makers. The study was conducted by CCTechnologies, in cooperation with NACE International (The Corrosion Society), and was funded by the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA). It shows the areas of industry with large corrosion costs, and calculates the moneys spent on corrosion control methods.

The annual cost of corrosion consists of both direct costs and indirect costs. The direct costs related to corrosion are made up of two main components: 1. The costs of design, manufacturing, and construction, and 2. The cost of management. The costs of designing, manufacturing and construction include material selection, such as stainless steel to replace carbon steel, additional material, such as increased wall thickness for corrosion allowance, material used to mitigate or prevent corrosion, such as coatings, sealants, corrosion inhibitors, and cathodic protection, and application, including the cost of labor and equipment. The cost of management includes corrosion-related inspection, corrosion-related maintenance, repairs due to corrosion, replacement of corroded parts, inventory of backup components, rehabilitation, and loss of productive time.

Specialists have long known of the tremendous costs of corrosion in monetary terms and in terms of safety. Corrosion engineers, such as Gerry Koch, hope that results from this study will bring a new awareness of these costs to people in other fields, especially to decision and policy makers in Industry and Government.

"If we can make those people at that level aware of the impact that corrosion has on finances of the company, they may be more willing to do something about it. Awareness of corrosion costs is also important for Congress and local Governments, so they can allocate money for corrosion mitigation and research", Koch said.

Anyone who owns a home or a car is affected by corrosion, and that is a large part of our population. Water heaters and furnaces are particularly affected. "Corrosion is a costly problem and it will be particularly costly when you don't do something about it", Koch said. Corrosion makes it so we cannot hold onto our assets forever.

Not only does corrosion affect our household assets, it wreaks havoc in the water and sewage, automotive, and oil industries sectors, as well as in the airline and defense industries. Results gathered from extensive web searches, surveys, and discussions with various engineers who work in each field illustrate high corrosion costs across these various sectors.

Water and Sewage Systems
Even Koch was surprised by the results of the very high cost of corrosion in the water and sewage industry."People live with it but do not realize that the upkeep and replacement of the drinking water and sewage systems is costing society a large amount of money. It was somewhat of a surprise that corrosion of the drinking water and sewage infrastructure would be the most costly of all the sectors studies."

Astoundingly enough, very little is being done to prevent corrosion in the water and sewage industry. The problem of deterioration of the system is apparently so overwhelming that the one choice appears to be of just waiting for water and sewage lines to break. It is difficult to prevent corrosion cost in this industry, because, according to Koch, "Often the maintenance engineers don't even know the location of water and sewage lines and there is no way to measure the conditions of the lines."

Motor Vehicles
The automotive industry is another story that illustrates what proper design and material selection can control and even prevent corrosion, thereby lowering the costs to the consumer. In a previous cost of corrosion study by Battelle Memorial Institute in the mid 1970's, a main focus was on the automotive industry. It was shown that automotive corrosion was one of the main contributors of the national cost of corrosion. "After this study, auto makers started to use galvanized steel and incorporate more corrosion conscious design and manufacturing techniques. The result is that car bodies last much longer today, you don't see many rusty cars," said Koch.

Even though, the total costs of corrosion remain about the same today as before changes were implemented, due to an increase in the number of automobiles. Koch views the automotive industry as a success story in corrosion control. Work done to prevent corrosion in cars has greatly benefited consumers. In fact, a significant percent-reduction in costs per vehicle has been observed.

Though costs have gone down, thanks to studies that provoked action, more is left to be done as technology in cars changes. Unfortunately, with this new technology comes new costs. Cars are much better today in terms of not rusting on the outside, but new cars have a wide variety of electrical and electronic components on the inside, and these components are also subject to corrosion.

Oil and Gas Industry
Corrosion continues to be a problem in all facets of the oil and gas industry. The study showed direct corrosion costs in oil and gas exploration and production of $1.4 billion/year, in petroleum refining $3.7 billion/year, in gas and liquid transmission pipelines $7.0 billion/year, in gas distribution $5.0 billion/year, in hazardous materials transport $0.9 billion/year, and in hazardous materials storage $7.0 billion/year. All these sectors were investigated individually, and showed specific corrosion issues for each industry. The corrosion cost issues range from added costs for new construction, to maintenance costs on aging/corroding equipment, the costs of inspections and structural integrity evaluations, to the costs associated with corrosion-related failures and outages.

In addition to the issues raised by processes used, the oil and gas industries are undergoing intense amounts of scrutiny in the United States from regulatory agencies and environmental groups. As a result, releases of pollutants to air, soil or water caused by corrosion leaks are becoming high consequence events. Various regulations in the last few decades have forced owners/operators to implement a number of costly measures to reduce their impact on the environment, both with the types of products they produce and the manner in which they operate.

Aircraft
Not every industry has done as much as the automotive to control costs of corrosion. For example, the airlines are subject to corrosion problems, primarily as a result of the aging of the fleets. "Airlines continue to fly planes past their design age, and corrosion is becoming a life-limiting factor on some of these airplanes. That needs to be looked at very carefully. In addition to affecting the cost of maintenance and operation, corrosion could start to have an effect on safety," Koch said.

Civilian aircraft are not the only ones experiencing problems due to corrosion and aging of the fleet— so are defense fleets as well as other defense equipment. Corrosion has become a very costly factor in the Department of Defense. "A lot of the defense equipment is very old. For example, there are aircraft over 30 years old that are performing critical missions while there are no newer aircraft available to replace these aging aircraft. This may affect the readiness of these aircraft to fly their mission in time of war," said Koch.

Conclusions
Despite some successes such as those seen in the automotive industry, Koch feels that too many industries have a lopsided focus, viewing corrosion as a maintenance issue rather than a preventative one. "Emphasis should actually be placed on corrosion prevention and not corrosion repair. In general, I don't think that's being done enough," according to Koch. Moreover, Koch stresses that costs of corrosion are so high that they cannot and should not fall into a purely maintenance categorization.

"If you look at the total annual cost of corrosion (in this report), it's almost $300 billion. That's a very large number. You ought to realize that it's not just maintenance. This cost can be reduced significantly and a lot of money can be saved (using preventative measures)," said Koch.

Hopefully, an important step in controlling the ravages of corrosion has been taken by creating awareness though this study. These new facts and data presented in this study can be used to give decision-makers the tools to act and to initiate programs that lead to prevention of corrosion. Corrosion will still be costly, as corrosion engineers like Koch realize, however, large amounts of money can be saved with proper planning and application of existing corrosion control technology.

e-mail Gerry Koch: gkoch@cctechnologies.com