MSSC
Prof. Dr. - Ing. Michael Schütze
Ingenieurbüro Scientific Consulting
Corrosion
Corrosion
Research -
Key to
Future Societal
and Industrial
Development
Greetings Address on Occasion of the Celebration of the International Corrosion Awareness Day on 24 April 2021 by the Chinese Academy of Sciences at the Forum of Corrosion Control Technology and Industrialization Development in Guangzhou, China (24-26 April 2021)
Corrosion Awareness Day was initiated by the World Corrosion Organization in the year 2010 and is subsequently celebrated annually on the 24th of April. Its aims are to raise public and political awareness of the omnipresent problems caused by corrosion of technical structures, which even nowadays are still sometimes regarded as unavoidable.
However, research and development in corrosion management and protection have provided a large variety of powerful solutions to avoid material losses and damage by corrosion. When taking into account the enormous costs caused by corrosion damage to the large industrial economies, it becomes clear that the application of this knowledge offers a huge potential for cost savings, in the range of several trillion dollars. A document released by the World Corrosion Organization revealed that the situation related to industrial and infrastructural corrosion in the US alone is characterised by a 2.2 trillion dollar problem. It is therefore not surprising that the new US president Joe Biden is now planning an unprecedented investment program into the run down infrastructure, which is largely oriented towards remedying damage caused by uncontrolled corrosion in the past.
The costs of corrosion are, however, only one part of the story. Increasingly, other aspects related to corrosion have become dominant such as industrial safety, protection of the environment against industrial pollution and protection of the population against industrial hazards. Great progress has been made in this area in previous years and it is fundamental to use and extend this knowledge for the benefit of mankind. In fact, corrosion as an issue will also have to be an important part of the discussion for the future of our industrial society. Corrosion is a process that destroys metallic materials that have been produced from the limited resources of our planet, usually by using a large amount of energy. Therefore, avoiding and preventing corrosion essentially equates to saving the earth’s resources and energy and, thus, being able to maintain the industrial and societal future of our world.
Corrosion can also play a decisive role in the development of advanced technologies, in particular in the energy conversion and storage sector. This relates to components in fuel cells, electrolyser cells, solar energy conversion equipment and chemical energy storage systems. Currently, very dynamic and innovative research and development activities are underway in this area in all industrialised countries and one of the central aspects in these activities is long-lasting material stability, which means resistance against degradation by corrosion processes. In these cases, existing knowledge on corrosion resistance will be of significant importance. However, there is also very strong demand for innovative research and solutions that clearly go beyond the present understanding and that will have to be addressed in current and future research activities.
In summary, the deliberate and knowledgeable use of current, state-of-the-art expertise of corrosion management and protection and the innovative research for new solutions for corrosion resistant materials and structures will play a key role for future industrial societies. This will help to reduce the direct and indirect costs induced by corrosion, where a very significant potential still exists. Moreover, it will help with the solution of problems related to the limited resources of our planet and to the fragile global climate situation. It will also help to develop innovative technological processes in energy conversion and chemical energy storage, taking us away from current fossil fuel based energy to an environmentally neutral, non-fossil fuel based energy society. It is obvious that corrosion management and protection is a key-enabling technology and technical science for our future industrial society.
The industrial and societal solutions needed are not conceivable without significant input by corrosion research. This means that we as corrosion scientists have a strong responsibility to provide contributions to this development in the form of our expertise and creativity for innovative technological solutions. I would like to close my address by using the words of the first secretary General of the World Corrosion Organization George Hays: ”Now is the time!”
Michael Schütze