Mexico. A model developed at the National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM) allowed the creation of mobile laboratories that allow to reach the places where the oil pipelines presented serious corrosion problems and apply the cathodic protection technique.
"From this principle, the idea is to turn the whole tube into a cathode, which is why it is called cathodic protection. How do we do it? We buried an anode next to it and then forced the circuit. The anode, as we know that it is going to be damaged, is going to be exposed to the most aggressive part to corrosion, which is when electric current comes out of the metal. To delay its wear we put in the anode or output of the electric current a very protected alloy, a titanium is used covered by a layer of mixed oxides of rare earths, "explained Lorenzo Martínez Gómez, researcher emeritus of the Institute of Physical Sciences of the UNAM, world expert in electrochemistry of metals and member of the Permanent Seminar On Sciences and Technologies in Mexico in the XXI Century.
The mobile laboratories became companies incubated by UNAM itself, with students graduated from the Institute of Physical Sciences.
"The young people joined with great enthusiasm and even surpass me in the company. They are already the heads of the company. In the course of 10 years it was possible to set up a new institution that provides the service and serves Pemex thanks to recognizing our lag in addressing the phenomenon of corrosion, "says the Mexican scientist.
* With information from the Ibero-American Agency for the Dissemination of Science and Technology (www.dicyt.com).
