This project aims to provide companies with an independent means to assess the corrosion risks in their installations, to increase their awareness and to have them take appropriate preventive actions. To this end, we created a simple, rapid, in situ sensor system able to monitor a range of environmental markers over time to determine the risk of corrosion of steel submerged in water, as well as a statistical method to mine these data for an overall corrosion risk estimate – in short, the SOCORRO system, set at TRL 4.

In this project, we will implement and demonstrate this whole set-up in several industrial case studies (wind turbines at sea, water desalination/sanitation, ship’s hulls and ballast tanks, harbour sheet piles, process water) and show the economic opportunities. In addition, we will augment the statistical analysis with an intuitive, practical dashboard tool to present the outflow of information and to convey that risk to the end users. This will raise the TRL to 6 or 7.

The project will provide 11 different industrial demonstration cases at different early adopters, acting as partners or members of the advisory board, to assess and optimise the industrial applicability of the SOCORRO system, as well as an overall economic / feasibility study of these demonstration cases. With the demonstrators operating in different industrial surroundings, the project will gather varied sector-specific results for an overall feasibility study and business case.

As such, the use of the system may yield many benefits: slowed down corrosion rate and extended life cycle of metal constructions; increased cost control and safety in maritime installations (ships, offshore platforms, ports), more reliable infrastructure and higher economic gains for the production of renewable energy (offshore windmills, wave energy plants, …), more efficient water sanitation treatment and production, and a more integrated water management.

With the North Sea as the central hub of the 2 Seas region, both geographically and economically, corrosion is a much-underestimated problem for the whole region. Arguably, climate variations are not very large in the 2Seas region. Nevertheless, experience has taught us that even so, corrosiveness (and hence, corrosion) in different ports, installations, or aboard ships shows enough variation (see eg doi: 10.3940/rina.ijme.2017.a3.41, fig. 3). The range of environmental conditions and industrial applications which are available within the cross border area allow for thorough testing of the SOCORRO methodology and application, to demonstrate its usefulness. Hence also the need for a large consortium (with a range of expert knowledge) from different economic sectors from all over the region, and for demonstrations and subsequent dissemination to be organised per region (to allow for national differences, regulations and traditions).