Page 242 - Challenges in Corrosion Costs Causes Consequences and Control(2015)

220 CORROSION CONTROL AND PREVENTION

TABLE 4.10 Distribution of Composite Shipments (K. Walshon, Society of Plastics
Industry, Composites Institute, Personal communication, Oct. 1999.)
Industry Sectors Percentage of Shipments
Transportation 31.6
Construction 20.8
Marine 10.1
Electrical/electronic 10.0
Appliances and business equipment 5.5
Consumer goods 6.3
Aircraft 0.6
Corrosion-resistant applications 11.8
Other 3.3
Total 100.0

For a pipe less than 20 cm in diameter, the installed cost of fiber-reinforced pipe
(FRP) is 50% greater than steel pipe, while for 20–40 cm pipe, the installed costs
of FRP and steel are equal. In the case of pipe larger than 40 cm in diameter the
installed cost of FRP is less than that of steel. Overall, the installed cost of an FRP
pipe is about 30% higher than the installed cost of steel pipe (Ameron Fiberglass,
Personal communication, Aug. 1999.). The 30% extra cost is the actual cost of cor-
rosion, and the annual contribution to the total cost of corrosion by composites is
$1.864 billion × 30%, which equals $559 million.
PVC pipe first developed by German scientists during World War II has grown
by leaps and bounds. A total of 6.6 billion kg of PVC resin was produced in 1998
in the United States of which 907 kg are used toward manufacture of PVC pipe. For
buried pipes, 10.2 cm in diameter and larger, which includes water, sanitary, and storm
sewers, 137,500 km of PVC were produced in 1997 at a total worth of $1 billion.
PVC pipes have many advantages over steel pipes such as light weight, ease of
fabrication (no welding required), and ease of installation (no torch cutting required).
Thus, the total amount of PVC pipe is not the direct cost of corrosion. The PVC
industry is found to play a significant role in the context of corrosion resistance. The
cost attributable to corrosion is approximately $500 million.

4.5.2 Polyethylene
This is by far the most used polymeric material in the United States. More than
12.2 billion kg (27 billion lbs) of polyethylene resin was produced in 1998. Polyethy-
lene is chemically inert and hence finds application in the form of polyethylene pipe
in the corrosion-resistant market. The use of polyethylene pipe by industry in the
United States in 1998 as reported by the Conduit Plastic Pipe Institute is given in
Table 4.11.
The commodity price of polyethylene pipe is $1.32/kg and translates into a total
cost of $461.4 million of polyethylene pipe sold in the United States. This is consid-
ered as corrosion-related cost.