ME&CC Exchange's Focus on Corrosion

DHAHRAN, January 02, 2008 -- More than 230 national and international professionals representing the oil and gas, petrochemical and water industries, as well as academia, discussed topics in corrosion and materials failures at the 2007 Materials Engineering and Corrosion Control (ME&CC) Technical Exchange Meeting.

Faisal M. Al-Faqeer

The meeting, held Nov. 19-21 in the Research and Development Center Technical Exchange Center, was part of the Consulting Services Department’s (CSD) strategy to develop and transfer technology to refining, production and pipeline core business customers.

Faisal M. Al-Faqeer, Materials Engineering and Corrosion Control Division coordinator at CSD, opened the meeting, emphasizing its importance. “CSD sponsors such meetings to provide an effective forum for exchanging ideas, pooling experiences and reaching innovative solutions to challenging problems,” he said. “We can only learn if we are each willing to share openly our experiences and our questions.”

The meeting included sessions on materials/metallurgy and welding, coatings and cathodic protection, nonmetallic materials, water treatment and chemical cleaning, and upstream and downstream corrosion issues. Twenty technical presentations were delivered and there were five round-table discussion sessions.

From left, Don R. Hixson, Ras Tanura Refinery corrosion specialist, Dennis C. Niemeyer, welding specialist; and Graham R. Lobley, engineering consultant, take part in a panel discussion during the 2007 Materials Engineering and Corrosion Control Technical Exchange Meeting.

Among the new technologies introduced by Applied Semiconductor Inc. was the semiconductive coating system. The new organic conductive polymer coating prevents corrosion of nonferrous materials such as aluminum, and permits tuning of the system’s electronic circuit, which will replace conventional semiconductor chips.

A representative of Saudi Basic Industries Corp. presented a software program used for coating selection. The software captured the interest of many, including CSD’s coating specialists, who saw its potential for their own organizations.

In the field of nonmetallics, Saudi Aramco nonmetallic materials specialist shared the company’s experience in using nonmetallic materials in downhole operations to combat corrosion.