Sitech Services (Geleen, The Netherlands) and CorrosionRADAR (Cambridge, United Kingdom) have extended a contract for remote corrosion under insulation (CUI) monitoring at their Chemelot site in the Netherlands. The company has used this CUI remote monitoring technology since 2019.
This novel solution for corrosion monitoring received was one of the Materials Performance (MP) Corrosion Innovation of the Year Awards winners in 2021.
“Sitech’s willingness to accelerate the adoption of remote monitoring solutions and their vision of Industry 4.0 for asset integrity makes them an ideal partner for innovative companies like CorrosionRADAR,” says Mehrdad Silatani, chief operating officer. “This partnership is already showing impact in increased safety along with financial savings for asset integrity of ageing plants in the Netherlands.”
The advancements in this patented sensing technology, along with wireless and battery-powered instruments, make deployments easy, according to the company. As predictive maintenance, the data is displayed on an online dashboard, allowing risks to be identified before corrosion occurs.
By utilizing this system, Sitech is using data to complement its existing risk-based inspection program.. This software is expected to contribute to a reduction in unscheduled shutdowns, which are costly and time-consuming.
“We were concerned about the CUI risk of the column due to its old age, life expectancy, and experience with a similar column,” says Peter Janssen, senior material and corrosion engineer at Sitech. “We renewed our conservation and insulation on the asset and installed online monitoring to keep CUI under control for the next 25 years. Costs for CUI inspections in the future will be expensive. However, with remote monitoring, we can detect and locate the CUI risk early, enabling inspection scoping with rope access of only the specific locations where risk is detected on the asset.”
According to the companies, Sitech and CorrosionRADAR are excited to further strengthen the partnership by bringing the benefits of remote monitoring to manage CUI in a much safer and cost-effective way.
Source: Sitech and CorrosionRADAR, www.sitech.nl/tech-update/coi-innovations-could-save-millions.