Cost of Corrosion in the United States

As can be seen by the above mentioned analysis, the "cost of corrosion" is of major economic consequence to society reflected in the increased losses that it causes to various industrial sectors of the economy. The cost of corrosion study estimates that these corrosion-related costs to most of the large industry sectors are between 3.5 to $14 billion annually. The industrial sectors identified with the highest corrosion costs were:

• Oil and Gas Extraction
• Petroleum Refining
• Chemical Processing
• Pulp & Paper
• Public Utilities (electric, gas and water)
• Transportation (auto, train, air)
• Metals Production
• Civil Infrastructure

The costs of corrosion come in the form of either premature deterioration or failure resulting in the need for maintenance, repair and replacement of damaged equipment. Other sources of costs come from lost production and increased downtime of equipment arising from corrosion problems. In some cases, corrosion cost also include additional standby capacity that needs to be instituted to alleviate downtime problems associated with corrosion failures or unscheduled maintenance. According to the NBS study, a major portion of these expenditures could be eliminated using existing technology through application of best available practices.

This study prompts the following question: Why is the cost of corrosion as high as it is? One major reason for the high cost of corrosion is that the marketplace for corrosion products and services is very fragmented. It consists of many smaller companies that provide only a limited number of services or products. This situation has limited the systematic gathering of archival information on losses due to corrosion. Many of these smaller companies provide only a small range of corrosion products or services. This has made it difficult to develop consistent broad reaching approaches to solving major corrosion problems that truly include best available practices.

Therefore, one of the major limitations resulting from the fragmented nature of the corrosion industry is the difficulty in the dissemination and utilization of information on best practices. It has also made it difficult to access many of suppliers of corrosion control technologies. The Internet, and more specifically CorrosionSource using the Internet as an information conduit has the potential to address many of the issues related to access to technical information while also being a consolidating force in the corrosion products and services sector.

The field of corrosion control industry is dominated by several fundamental technologies that when properly applied can be used to minimize losses due to corrosion. These technologies include:

• Corrosion resistant alloys – Ferrous and non-ferrous alloys that, by virtue of their chemical composition, have resistance to various corrosives.
• Coatings and linings – Metallic and polymeric materials that are applied to materials to enhance their resistance to corrosive degradation. These materials act as a barrier between the corrosive environment and the substrate material.
• Chemical treatments – These treatments involve the application of a chemical formulation to either the service environment or the exposed surface of the materials of construction that reduces corrosion to an acceptably low level. These treatments include corrosion inhibitors, neutralizers, passivators and other corrosion control chemicals.
• Cathodic protection – An electrochemical method involving application of a cathodic current to reduce the rate of corrosion to an acceptable level. This can be performed using an impressed current or the current produced by the preferential corrosion of a sacrificial material.
• Non-metallic materials – Polymeric, ceramic or composite materials that have an inherent chemical resistance to corrosive agents in the service environment.
• Testing and analyses – Includes laboratory and field corrosion testing, corrosion monitoring, chemical analysis and non-destructive testing of components.

The NBS study references an earlier survey of corrosion expenditures segregated by these classifications. It indicates that the highest corrosion expenditures are for corrosion resistant alloys which total about 55% of the total, followed in decreasing order by protective coatings (30%), non-metallics (5%), cathodic protection (5%), inhibitors (4%) and testing (1%). Whereas the percentages are good overall indication of expenditures, the amount may vary considerably by industrial sector.

An example of the potential variability in corrosion expenditures by industry can be estimated by comparing corrosion control activities in various sectors of the economy. In the chemical industry, corrosion control is primarily through the application of corrosion resistant alloys that can withstand exposure to the aggressive chemicals in processing plants. By comparison, the petroleum production and refining sectors have a much greater use of chemical inhibitors added to the process environment and the combination of coatings and cathodic protection applied to the external surface of buried pipelines. In the transportation industry (including automobile transportation), corrosion control is primarily through the use of coatings.

Using the magnitude of corrosion expenditures by the corrosion technology categories given in the above mentioned survey (allowing for inflation and growth in the GDP through FY 1996; ref: http://www.rrojasdatabank.org/stind03.htm) leads to an estimate of the corrosion expenditures. The total for all categories of corrosion technology approximately $337 billion annually. The following table gives a breakdown of these annualized costs:

* A more detailed breakdown of expenditures in these categories is given in Table I.

This presentation appears to leave out a major category of corrosion related expenditures resulting from field and plant inspection. However, this area is already included in the expenditures for testing given above. If segregated in a separate category, this would total about $1.5 billion, thus reducing the expenditures in the category of testing by about 50 percent to $2 billion.