Cement manufacturing makes up ~8% of human-created CO2 . E.g. OPC life in highly saline potash environment was predicted to fail in 6-10 years. When concrete degrades (and steel corrodes) they require repair or replacement – adding to supply chain emission profile (scope 3) for the site.
Concrete service life can be significantly increased by careful design of concrete mix, coatings, cathodic protection, embedded monitoring etc. ICE supported the potash mine design by increasing concrete service life for the wet process plant to >70 years.
Many fatal failures have been associated with corrosion risk. E.g. Collapse of a ship loader at a port in South America, due to corrosion of the cables. The operator was lost and the port shut down.
Nearby client shiploader inspected visually and using a NDT crawler drone to determine cable damage and accurately predict replacement timing for planned budgeting.
Corrosion and wear can cause leakage events from conveyance lines into sensitive environments and are associated with loss of social license to operated and huge fines. E.g. Conveyance line lost wall thickness due to internal microbial pitting corrosion causing a leakage event into sensitive local environment.
We design risk monitoring systems, analyse data and use it to help clients make informed decisions about inspection type, frequency and optimize maintenance activities. On this project we reviewed the corrosion inhibitor program (type, dosing, monitoring) and provided client with a management plan that worked, preventing future concerns.