Offshore Department at a glance

The Offshore department started its activities in November 2011 after the meeting of the fkks advisory board on 30.03.2011. This department deals with the special requirements for cathodic corrosion protection of metallic structures in or under the influence of seawater.
The task of the department is to be present and participate in relevant national and international committees and to deal with standardisation issues in the national and international environment. It is also responsible for monitoring technical developments and continuously improving the quality of specialists and specialist companies through training programs and opportunities.

Overview of Cathodic protection for offshore structures
Many energy assets, both hydrocarbon and renewable, are offshore and today 80% of goods are transported by sea across the world. To keep all these assets sustainable and running, a corrosion protection system is essential, especially coating and cathodic protection.
Cathodic protection for offshore structures has a similar concept and theory to other environments i.e. shifting the potential of the structure to the defined protection range. In offshore cathodic protection the protection current from sacrificial or impressed current anodes goes towards the structure and reduces the corrosion rate to less than a defined value. However, offshore cathodic protection has some specific design and technical aspects that arise from the environment. 
Seawater or sweet water generally has a lower resistivity than soil or concrete, so the protection current can reach a greater distance. In the offshore environment, the electrolyte is moving, e.g. waves, so the protection current is significantly higher and the CP system should have a higher protection current capacity. A common practice for buried structures is to apply a coating, in the offshore environment there are both coated and uncoated structures. So from a design perspective, cathodic protection for offshore structures has its own limitations and challenges.
From a technical point of view, in the harsh offshore environment, the cathodic protection system needs to be more robust (mechanically and electrically). In addition, the accessibility of offshore assets is more difficult and the cost of repairing the problem offshore is higher, so the cathodic protection system should be more self-sustaining and resilient than typical onshore systems.

Chair: Dr. Mehdi Attarchi and Dr. Thorsten Eichler
Contact: offshore@fkks.de