Anti-corrosive coatings

Summary

The monopile, acts as the essential foundation for offshore wind turbines integrity, demanding effective corrosion mitigation strategies. Understanding environmental impacts on monopile corrosion and coating deterioration aids in devising an effective corrosion control strategy. The project aims to investigate environmental impacts on internal monopile corrosion and coating degradation, develop a new corrosion prevention technique, and implement real-time monopile monitoring. 

 

The project

Rising offshore wind power deployments harness consistent sea winds from the vast open areas. Steel monopiles are the primary choice for offshore wind foundations, while the harsh offshore conditions accelerate the deterioration of wind structures, resulting in faster corrosion rates and shortened lifespan. Cathodic protection as an anti-corrosion measure presents the advantage of the formation of calcareous deposits on the steel surface. Understanding the environmental factors affecting corrosion and the calcareous layer formation, as well as choosing effective corrosion mitigation strategies is crucial to guarantee the structural integrity of the monopile and enhance its service life.

The project aims to:
• Investigate-understand the environmental factors impacting internal monopile corrosion and coating degradation.
• Study the environmental factors affecting the formation of the protective calcareous deposits.
• Implement cathodic protection and organic coatings for the corrosion protection of the monopile.
• Study the optimal conditions for cathodic protection and the evolution of the calcareous layer.
• Utilize online monitoring methods for monopile corrosion and coating degradation.
• Compare the lab-scale results with real field exposure data. The expected research results are a better understanding of the environmental conditions impacting internal monopile corrosion and calcareous layer formation, establishing an efficient, feasible anti-corrosion method for current and future offshore wind turbines enhancing their lifespan, and its integration with an online monitoring system.  

Funding

The Hempel Foundation and the Technical University of Denmark (DTU)

The project runs from 1 December 2022 - 31 March 2026.

Supervisors

• Kim Dam-Johansen
  

The project

Corrosion poses a major challenge, leading to structural degradation, financial losses, and environmental concerns. Conventional inhibitors, often containing toxic heavy metals, threaten ecosystems, driving the need for sustainable, non-toxic alternatives.
This research focuses on developing epoxy coatings enriched with bioactive compounds from aquatic plants as eco-friendly corrosion inhibitors. These natural additives offer the potential to enhance corrosion resistance while remaining cost-effective and friendly.

The study involves:
• Extraction and characterization of bioactive compounds from selected aquatic plants.
• Incorporation into epoxy coatings and evaluation of corrosion resistance using electrochemical and surface analysis techniques.
• Investigation of adsorption mechanisms (physisorption and chemisorption) and their inhibitive effects for long-term protection.

By introducing green corrosion inhibitors, this research aims to reduce environmental hazards, extend the lifespan of coated structures, and lower maintenance costs. The findings contribute to sustainable engineering, offering a viable alternative to traditional corrosion protection methods. 

Funding

The Hempel Foundation. The project runs from 1 March 2024 - 28 February 2027.

Supervisors

• Kim Dam-Johansen 

Objective

The aim of this project is to construct intelligent epoxy anti-corrosive coatings incorporating ultra-stable highly porous metal organic frameworks (MOTs) container for loading corrosion inhibitors.

The project

Smart anti-corrosion coatings have garnered significant attention in recent years due to their ability to provide long-lasting protection against corrosion. These coatings rely on the incorporation of corrosion inhibitors encapsulated in porous structures, highlighting the critical importance of designing efficient containers for loading these inhibitors. In order to maximize the effectiveness of these coatings, several key properties of containers must be carefully considered, including a high specific surface area, stimuli-responsive behavior, a simple synthesis procedure, and stability in acidic, basic and neutral environments. However, most existing containers lack at least one of these properties. Therefore, in this project, we aim to design advanced pigments based on ultra-stable and highly porous MOFs with all desired properties to construct a high-performance anti-corrosive coating.

Funding

The Hempel Foundation. The project runs from 15 March 2023 - 14 March 2026.

Supervisors

• Kim Dam-Johansen
  

Using energetic polymers and smart additives to develop multifunctional waterborne coatings for steel with strongly adhesive, active anticorrosion and self-healing properties.

Objective

The objective of this project is to develop a new robust multifunctional strongly adhesive to substrate, active anticorrosion and self-healing coating (AAS-coating) for steel. Through:

• Synthesizing active nanoparticles and self-healing microcapsules
• Synthesizing energetic polymers
• Developing new smart waterborne anticorrosion coatings
• Examining their active anticorrosion, self-healing and mechanical properties.

Background

Smart active and self-healing coatings have great potential particularly due to their autonomous response and healing of coating defect. Upon onset of corrosion, active components can respond to local environmental changes inhibiting corrosion propagation.

Moreover, the intrinsic self-healing polymers confer on the coating the property of automatically repairing microcracks in situ, improving protection during production, storage, transportation, and usage. However, the introduction of smart additives into waterborne anticorrosion coatings compromizes the integrity of the coating matrix by creating water uptake pathways, leading to delamination and other mechanical property failures.

The Project

Inert self-healing polymers do not contain energetic groups, thereby limiting the energy density of coatings and detrimentally affecting the efficiency of coating.

Therefore, we shall design a strongly adhesive waterborne coating, relying on loose hard domains, rapid rearrangement of hydrogen bonds, and strong interfacial adhesion of energetic polymers.

We combine that property with incorporating (i) active preloaded mesoporous nanoparticles, and (ii) impregnated microcapsule components to obtain coating with high adhesion, active anticorrosion, and self-healing properties.

Funding

The Hempel Foundation and the Technical University of Denmark (DTU)
The project runs from 1 August 2022 - 31 July 2026.

Supervisors

• Kim Dam-Johansen

Summary

The project is on the fundamental understanding of the protection and degradation mechanism of anti-corrosive coatings and the key factors affecting the coating performance, thereby providing guidance to the coating formulation improvement.

The project

The results of corrosion and failure modes of coating protection are known and internalized by the academy and industry professionals. But the distinct mechanisms that led to those failure modes are not that clear.

For characterizing degradation of coatings, a holistic view is needed. Transport processes, chemical and physical changes on the coating structure, corrosion reaction itself all act on the coating and degradation is the combined result of the various competitive and synergic processes.

Anti-corrosive coating formulations, by their nature, take considerable time in development and especially testing. Knowing how the coating protects & fails and understanding the mechanism behind would provide significant guidance for the new coating formulation development and facilitate the coating performance improvement.

Funding

The Hempel Foundation and the Technical University of Denmark (DTU)
The project runs from 1 April 2023 to 31 March 2026

Supervisors

• Kim Dam-Johansen
  

The research project

Waterborne epoxy coatings are eco-friendly but struggle to adhere to steel, especially with oil, rust, or other contaminants. This research explores how adhesion works by studying substrate conditions, curing environments, and molecular interactions. Using advanced tests, it examines chemical and hydrogen bonds to understand what affects adhesion strength. These insights will help create coatings with better surface tolerance for real-world use. This research supports sustainable coatings, reducing maintenance costs and extending the life of steel structures.

Key Focus Areas:

1. Identifying differences between van der Waals and covalent bonds in adhesion.

2. Studying how different factors affect surface tolerance.

3. Understanding adhesion mechanisms to improve coating performance.

Funding

The Hempel Foundation. The project runs from 14 January 2024 to 13 January 2027.

Supervisors

• Kim Dam-Johansen 
• Narayanan Rajagopalan