Design Aspects & Features of CP Systems 8y

Anand Kulkarni Directo0 Corrosion Control Services

(8) Pvt

Ltc!.

Design Aspects & Features of CP Systems

By

Anand Kulkarni Directo~ Corrosion Control Services (B) Pvt Ltd

Galvanic CP System By electrically connecting a more active metal electrode (anode) to the buried steel structure intended to be protected (cathode), corrosion gets transferred from the steel structure to the anode. Corrosion of the anode causes a current to flow in the circuit resulting in cathodic protection of the buried steel structure. The choice of the anode will determine the efficacy of the galvanic CP system. The three main types of galvanic anodes widely used for providing protection are zinc, magnesium and aluminum. vZinc From a historical perspective, zinc was the first galvanic anode used for protecting steel since the nineteenth century. This metal tends to passivate if it is not pure. Zinc finds extensive use for protection of ship hulls and offshore pipelines. Because of its low electrochemical potential, zinc is used for protection in low resistivity soils. When a zinc anode is used in soils, it is surrounded by a special backfill to lower its grounding resistance. Characteristics of zinc anodes: Rate of consumption, kg IA. year Potential, volts to CSE 11.8 -1.1

JMagnesium Magnesium is a useful galvanic anode in both soil and fresh water. When used in soils, it is surrounded by a special backfill to lower its grounding resistance. Its high electrochemical potential makes it suitable for higher resistivity soils, unlike zinc. However, it is susceptible to self- corrosion which reduces the available current. Characteristics of Magnesiun;l Anodes: Rate of consumption, kg/A.year Potential, volts to CSE Low potential alloy High potential alloy

7.9 - 1.50 to - 1.55 - 1.7

JAluminum Aluminum passivates easily and hence it is used as a galvanic anode only in the form of alloys containing zinc and other elements. Its rate of self-corrosion is higher than zinc, although much lower than magnesium. With its low rate of consumption and an electrochemical potential that is slightly more electronegative than zinc, aluminum is the obvious choice for protecting steel in offshore applications. Characteristics of Aluminum anodes: Rate of Consumption, kg / A.year Potential, volts to CSE 3.1 to 3.4 - 1.10 to -1.15

Anode Backfill Before installing zinc or magnesium anodes in soil, it is a standard practice to surround it with a chemical backfill. This chemical backfill is typically a mixture of gypsum (CaS04), bentonite clay and sodium sulphate in the proportion 75%, 20% and 5% respectively. The main reason that the galvanic anode is surrounded by such a chemical backfill prior to its installation in soil is to reduce its resistance to earth and hence enhance its current discharging ability. Additionally, a bare anode installed directly in soil would suffer from local corrosion caused by variations in the composition of soil Leading to its non-uniform consumption. The chemical backfill helps in avoiding this problem resulting in a more efficient discharge of current. Also, the chemical backfill keeps the immediate environment around the anode moist, which aids conduction of current.

Impressed Current CP System In contrast to the galvanic CP system, the impressed current CP system is an electrolytic cell designed to include a dc power source for providing power and impressed current anodes for discharging the CP current. Impressed Current Anodes As opposed to galvanic anodes, impressed current anodes discharge the current provided by an external power source. It is important, therefore, that the impressed current anode material does not get consumed at a rapid rate. Also, its resistance should not get too affected by its consumption or polarization. Finally, it is important that the anode material is economical as the design life of these anodes is quite high. There is a wide choice of impressed current anodes available today thanks to continual developments in the areas of metals and material selection.

Some of these anodes are: Scrap Iron anodes High silicon cast iron anodes Mixed - metal oxide coated titanium anodes Platinized titanium / niobium anodes Magnetite anodes Polymer cable anodes

Scrap Iron anodes: These anodes are typically seen in the form of "pipes", "rails" etc. Scrap iron anodes were used in earlier times and continue to be used for current drainage surveys that are carried out to estimate current demand prior to implementing CPo With a rate of consumption of about 10kg/ A year, these anodes are the economical choice for relatively short design lives. High Silicon cast iron anodes: These are the most widely used anodes in impressed current CP systems with long design lives. These iron anodes, available in a cylindrical rod type shape, for pipeline CP system contain 14% to 15% of silicon in addition to other alloying elements such as chromium. Because of the inclusion of silicon, the rate of consumption of these anodes, at about 0.2 -0.3 kg/A.year, is quite low. Mixed -metal oxide (MMO) coated titanium anodes: These anodes are composed of a highly conductive mixed metal oxide film thermally applied to a titanium substrate. These oxide films have a very low rate of consumption, about 1 mg/A.year. Additionally, they are chemically stable and resistant to acidic electrolytes. Mixed metal oxide anodes although much newer than high silicon cast iron anodes, have been used extensively in deep well and other configurations. Platinized titanium/niobium anodes: These anodes form an oxide film when treated as impressed current anodes in fresh and salt-water. The consumption rate of these anodes is very low, of the order of 10 mg/A.year Magnetite Anodes: These are steel-based anode with a low rate of consumption, about 0.02kg /A.year. These anod,esare not commercially available in India. Polymer Cable Anodes: These anodes are made of a polymer in which graphite is used as a conducting material with petroleum coke breeze for delivering higher current densities.

DC power sources The dc power source in an impressed current CP system is a vital element that supplies the current needed for protecting the steel structure. Commonly used DC power sources are now discussed. Transformer Rectifier Units (TRU): A TRU is the most commonly used dc power source in impressed current CP systems. This equipment uses ac supply as input which is transformed and rectified to provide a dc output. TRUs can be manually controlled or automatically controlled. The latter TRUs now use thyristors for the auto-control feature. Both single -phase and three-phase TRUs are available. Single-phase TRUs are generally used for onshore applications and three-phase TRUs are typically used for offshore applications.

TRANSFORMER

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Additionally, there are dc power units working on both AC and DC supplies. These units work on AC supply when AC power is available. When it is not, the unit derives DC power from batteries that are charged during the period that the AC power is available. Thermo Electric Generators (TEGs) and Closed Cycle Vapour Turbogeneartors (CCVTs): TEGs use multiple thermocouples that work on the principle that a temperature difference between its ends produces an emf that is used for supplying CP current. TEGs are suitable for applications where CP power requirements are low, say under lOOW. The gas flowing through the pipe needing CP is used as fuel to create the temperature difference across the thermocouples. CCVTs are turbogenerators that use the gas flowing through a pipeline as a fuel for generating DC power.

Solar Power Units: Solar power units make use of high efficiency solar cells that absorb solar energy and convert it into electricity. Specially designed batteries are used to store the electrical energy thus produced so that dc power can be made available at nights or during cloudy days. These units are suitable for CP applications in areas where sunshine is plentiful and the CP power requirement is very small, say under 5 KW. Ground Beds A ground bed is a group of buried anodes that discharge the current needed for CP of a structure. For a cathodically protected pipeline, current flows to the pipeline because of the difference in the potentials of earth (which is relatively positive) and the pipeline (which is relatively negative). This difference in potentials between the earth and pipeline can be created using two different types of ground beds. Remote ground beds Close ground beds

Remote ground beds: Current discharged from the anode ground bed will set up a potential gradient in the surrounding soil. This potential gradient will be the highest close to the ground bed and will diminish as one moves away from it until a point is reached where the potential gradient is zero or almost zero. This point is termed as 'remote earth'. The area between remote earth and the anode ground bed is called as the 'area of influence' of the ground bed. Similarly, the current flowing to the pipeline will set up a potential gradient around it. This potential gradient will diminish as one moves away from the pipeline, and an 'area of influence' circumscribed by 'remote earth' will also exist for the pipeline. A remote anode ground bed is located far enough from the pipeline such that the areas of influence surrounding the pipeline and the ground bed remain more or less distinct. The current discharged by such a ground bed flows into 'remote earth' and on to the pipeline resulting in cathodic protection of the pipeline. Remote ground beds are typically used for protecting large lengths of pipelines.

Anode Bed Voltage

Distance from Anode Bed

Close Ground Beds: In contrast to remote ground beds, close ground beds are located in the vicinity of the pipeline section to be protected. Hence, a small section of the pipeline will pass through the 'area of influence' of the ground bed. The earth surrounding the pipeline section, being part of the 'area of influence', will be at a positive potential with respect to remote earth. The difference in potential between this earth surrounding the pipeline and the pipeline is sufficient to effect flow of current to protect the small section of the pipelines. Close ground beds are used to protect limited sections of the pipeline by providing 'local' CP to areas of the pipeline in their immediate vicinity. Such ground beds are used in a 'distributed' fashion to protect underground piping in congested areas, such as plants, where protection using remote ground beds may be unviable due to the shielding effects of other structures in the vicinity. Types of remote ground beds: The three common remote ground beds in use are: Shallow horizontal anode bed Shallow vertical anode bed Deep well anode bed

The choice of remote ground bed would depend on many factors. Some of these main factors include: Soil resistivity Type of soil Availability of land for locating the ground bed

Carbonaceous backfill Impressed current anodes are surrounded by a carbonaceous backfill before they are installed in a ground bed. Carbonaceous backfill increases the effective size of the anode so that its resistance to earth is lowered. Care should be taken to compact or tamp the backfill so that it can withstand the consumption caused by current discharge. The common types of carbonaceous backfill in use are Metallurgical coke breeze - this contains about 85% of fixed carbon besides ash, moisture and volatile matter. Calcined petroleum coke breeze - this contains 97% - 99% of fixed carbon. This type of backfill is commonly used in deep well ground beds.

Schematics of different types of remote ground beds are shown next.

Shallow Vertical ground bed

SHALLOW VERTICAL GROUND BED SCHEMATIC

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110'" DEPTH 21 H '" ANODE 31 L a LENGTH 415 "SPACING OF ANODES AS PER DESIGN DIMENSIONS AS PER DESIGN OF CANISTER AS PER DESIGN OF ANODES AS PER OeSIGN

Shallow horizontal ground bed

SCHEMATIC OF SHALLOW HORIZONTAL GROUND BED

Deep well ground bed

DEEP WELL ANODE GROUND BED SCHEMATIC

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Test points

I Test stations

Test points or test stations facilitate measurement and hence monitoring of electrical parameters related to a CP system. These include pipe-to-soil potentials (PSP), current flowing through a pipeline, voltage across a pipeline section, potential and current of anode etc. It would not be feasible to record these parameters by excavating the buried pipeline each time a measurement is to be made. Test points, thus, provide a convenient "above ground" facility for enabling such measurements. The most commonly used test points are illustrated below.

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Design aspects of CP systems (A Pipeline Perspective) Once the need for applying cathodic protection is determined, one needs to consider available facts and requirements while planning the design of a CP system. These include: Dimensional details of structure needing CP: For instance if a pipeline is to be protected. Data related to its diameter and length will be needed. Design life of the CP system: This is an important criterion in planning a CP system. For a short design life, a galvanic CP system would be suitable, while as for a longer design life, an impressed current CP system would be needed. Current requirement for ensuri~ CP: This factor depends upon the surface area of the structure needing protection, the type of coating on the pipeline, soil resistivity/composition and engineering expertise. Details of other structures that may cause shielding or unintended drainage of CP current: This aspect is especially important while planning a CP system for underground piping in a plant where the piping network is located in a congested area consisting of several other buried utilities. Interference posed by underground utilities not intended to be protected needs to be studied while designing a CP system for underground piping in a congested area. Based on above aspects, determine the type of CP system that will be suitable galvanic or impressed current: Galvanic and impressed current CP systems are suited for different applications. The techno-economic feasibility for both these CP systems should be studied before making a choice. Determine anode configuration: Based on the current demand and current distribution needed for effecting adequate CP, a suitable anode configuration has to be selected. Availability of external power for impressed current CP systems: This is an important aspect while planning an impressed current CP system. For crosscountry pipelines, it is even more important to study this aspect, as multiple CP sources may be neede~ to protect the pipeline. Adequate monitoring facilities.