SVO 180012: Prevention and detection of corrosion under insulation

Serious damage to process plants due to the effects of corrosion under insulation (COI) has been observed worldwide. When ageing, insulated equipment and pipelines are exposed to COI. In the Netherlands, a large proportion of the industry's process installations have been in operation for more than 30 years. In a number of cases, COI has been the cause of major calamities.

Production companies want to control the process safety risks caused by this COI, which has the character of an 'assassin'. COI is a degradation mechanism that occurs in insulated pipes and equipment at temperatures between 0 and 150 degrees C. This form of corrosion is difficult to control, because the locations where COI occurs are difficult to determine. Also, the speed of degradation depends on many factors and is therefore hard to predict.

Corrosion can be controlled as well and as long as possible through fundamental knowledge of coatings and the method of applying coatings. Corrosion can be detected with adequate non-destructive testing (NDT) techniques and inspection monitoring systems. Finally, a "risk based management" methodology ensures control of all relevant aspects surrounding COI.

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WCM

Purpose

The aim of this project is to prevent corrosion under insulation by timely detection of phenomena, selection of suitable coatings and application of a risk-driven maintenance decision model.

Together, these three building blocks contribute to the management of COI risks and the prevention of calamities, and also provide new opportunities for inspecting and maintaining installations for COI more effectively and at lower costs. An additional consequence is an improvement in the technical reliability and availability of the process installations.

Expected / obtained result

The project consists of a number of steps, including:

  • Establishing best practices that allow COI to be more accurately determined and better predicted with three components:
    1. Non-destructive testing (NDT): A practical tool to select reliable NDT techniques. These are techniques that can determine the deterioration of the base material in steps from coarse to fine without removing the insulation cladding.
    2. Coatings: a practical guideline to determine which coating offers sufficient protection against COI.
    3. "Risk-based" COI decision models: a practical risk decision model that achieves the prevention and mitigation of COI at the lowest possible cost.
  • Making the best practices available to Brzo companies and the VNCI and VNPI sector organisations

An extensive representation of experts and problem owners from production and maintenance companies is participating in the project. This provides a unique opportunity to compile the best available methods and techniques for combating COI based on the individual knowledge and experiences of the project participants.

The best practices are an extra-legal supplement to the Brzo requirements and have been published at the end of 2019 by World Class Maintenance.

Information SDN Knowledge Centre

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Project code SVO 180012
Committed grant € 298.152
Status Completed
Project period October 2018 - December 2019
Partnership Chain partnership
Project type Environmental study (C)
Project themes Chain responsibility

Safe business parks and clusters

Penholder World Class Maintenance (WCM)
Project participants Stork Asset Management Technology B.V.

Sitech Manufacturing Services C.V.

Royal DSM N.V.

Temati B.V.

Venko Schilderwerken B.V.

BASF Antwerpen N.V.

Borealis Plastomers B.V.

Cuijpers Services B.V.

Fluor B.V.

OCI Nitrogen B.V.

Shell Nederland Chemie B.V.

SABIC Petrochemicals B.V.

Association of the Dutch Chemical Industry (VNCI)

Association for Quality Supervision of Inspection and Non-Destructive Techniques (KINT)

Vereniging Industrieel Oppervlaktebehandelend Nederland (ION) (Industrial Surface Treatment Association)