Corrosion Education for Materials Life Extension: Pathway to Improvement in Resource Productivity

Materials are nonrenewal resources that are created through an “unnatural” process. In addition to resource recovery and recycling of valuable materials to achieve sustainability, simple methods to extend the life of materials enhance the resource productivity. The natural process of corrosion tries to reverse the process of material extraction causing enormous loss of energy and impacts the environment. Corrosion costs the U.S. over $300 billion per year and also produces significant safety hazards. Corrosion control is, therefore, important to enhance the life of engineering metals and materials, which is also the focus of many government regulatory agencies such as the EPA, DOT, and OPS. Corrosion protection technology utilizes metallurgy, material chemistry, and physics as well as electricity to prevent or control corrosion degradation and therefore, the education of corrosion science and engineering is directly linked to improving material life. Education in corrosion control applies these sciences to control the chemical and mechanical aspects that are involved in the deterioration of properties. This paper will address the educational aspects of corrosion technology that allow resource productivity improvement of materials.