Self-Healing Corrosion Resistant Coating: An Enabling Technology to Allow Use of Alternate Waters for Cooling

The projected population growth and limited availability of fresh water sources have forced utility companies and industries to consider the use of alternate water for non-potable application, such as industrial cooling. While in excess of 100 billion gallons per day of water is used for cooling purposes in a power plant, and estimated 6 billion gallons per day of freshwater is not returned to the source. The use of alternate water, such as mine-pool water, industrial/municipal reclaimed water and coal-bed methane/oilfield produced water can reduce the stress on fresh water sources. A key limitation in the use of such alternate water sources is the corrosion of pipe materials (e.g., copper alloys and steel) due to the presence of high levels of dissolved salts and other constituents such as ammonia. The proposed project aims to enable the use of alternate water sources for cooling applications, such a power plants, industrial manufacturing and commercial facilities by developing and implementing a new and novel self-healing anti-corrosion coating. The Phase I effort will demonstrate the use of the corrosion resistant coating by testing in actual alternate waters and under dynamic use conditions. The self-healing coating has a unique structure at the molecular level that allows the incorporation of corrosion inhibitors, which are expected to leach out at the damaged sites, thereby providing self-healing corrosion protection. The Phase I program is a collaboration with our strategic partner, a leading environmental consulting company. In addition, several organizations who are either producers or users of alternate waters, have expressed interest in working with us. Actual water samples from these organizations will be used in the Phase I program. Corrosion rates and morphology of test coupons after 30– 6- days in real alternate water under dynamic conditions (ASTM 4778) will be examined. After 30 days under dynamic conditions, the test coupons are expected to show negligible corrosion (e.g.,<1mpy). A successful Phase I program will set the stage for a field demonstration in Phase II, and eventual commercial implementation.