Chemical Engineering June 2010 - 21

Pepperl + Fuchs
Newsfront
Keeping
Corrosion
at Bay
Today's user friendly, proactive corrosionmonitoring
systems provide process
engineers with realtime information,
helping to avoid failures and reduce costs
G
iven the recent focus on cost
control, it's likely that chemical
processors will suffer sticker
shock when they learn that industry
spends $276 billion annually
on corrosion prevention, monitoring
and repair. Even more abrasive is the
fact that this figure does not include
the cost of downtime or accidents resulting
from corrosion damage. However,
as capital spending allowances
continue to come under tighter scrutiny,
asset management and sustainability
become crucial, and installing
the right corrosion monitoring system
can help bolster these efforts, while
actually controlling corrosion prevention,
monitoring and repair costs.
As the economy is slow to rebound,
there are two key phrases in the
chemical process industries (CPI):
asset management and sustainability,
notes Michael McElroy, business
development manager with Pepperl +
Fuchs (P+F; Twinsburg, Ohio). " People
are paying more attention to anything
related to reliability and sustainability,
especially when it concerns safety
and environmental discharges. And,
all of these hot-button topics are affected
by corrosion, " he says. " To ensure
both proper management of assets
and sustainability of equipment,
processors must know the condition
P+F's CorrTran MV is designed to take corrosion
monitoring out of the laboratory and into every day
process control because unlike corrosion coupons,
which establish a historical average corrosion rate
over time, CorrTran MV can monitor corrosion online
and in realtime
of their piping, tanks, valves, pumps
and other assets. They must know
when they need maintenance to avoid
shutdowns or accidents. And, corrosion
monitoring is an integral part of
these focus areas. "
Corrosion monitoring perks are
many. They range from high-value
benefits (such as accident and shutdown
avoidance) to mid-range value
advantages (including optimizing
the life of equipment by not having
extensive wear) to lower-range, but
still significant, value that stems
from knowing when and what kinds
of maintenance are actually needed
based on knowledgeable predictions
(instead of replacing parts on a timebased
schedule) to recognizing and
maintaining the sweet spot of corrosion
inhibiting chemicals.
But how can the " right " corrosion
monitoring system actually help reduce
the cost of corrosion monitoring
itself? According to P+F, corrosion prevention,
monitoring and repair costs
are better controlled when corrosion
is viewed as a process variable, rather
than as a purely historical value or in
a complex, scientific method.
And the key to this lies in userfriendly
monitoring that provides proactive,
realtime data that can be analyzed
and used by process engineers.
Proactive, realtime monitoring
One such instrument is P+F's CorrTran
MV, which affords greater insight
to the process engineer. This
two-wire,
multivariable,
4-20-mA
HART transmitter evaluates general
and localized (pitting) corrosion, as
well as conductivity, in realtime. It is
designed to take corrosion monitoring
out of the laboratory and into every
day process control because unlike
corrosion coupons, which establish a
historical average corrosion rate over
time, CorrTran MV can monitor corrosion
online and in realtime.
Via integration into a new or legacy
system, the tool gives plant operators
the ability to monitor corrosion rates
within their existing software and
control system like any other process
variable, while the HART signal allows
multivariable monitoring of
general corrosion, localized corrosion
and conductivity.
According to Mike Mendicino, product
manager with P+F, this type of
monitoring provides many benefits
over traditional methods. " Coupons
provide only two data points - the
mass before you put it into the process
and the mass after it corrodes. These
limited data give you a corrosion rate,
but no knowledge of what happened
between, " he says.
ChemiCal engineering www.Che.Com June 2010 21
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Chemical Engineering June 2010

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