General Points Regarding the Vulnerability of Industrial Systems

2 General Points Regarding the Vulnerability of Industrial Systems 

What will be addressed in this chapter regarding the risk of MIC and the vulnerability of a system are just necessary and not enough conditions. In other words, establishment of the following conditions can flag the danger of MIC but does not guarantee its occurrence. 

Another example is the very useful flow diagram proposed by Krooneman et al. for the assessment and reducing the risk of MIC in pipelines [6], In this simple yet very clever flow diagram, the possibility of different factors leading to the risk of MIC is addressed. Some of these factors are oxygen content, pH, sulphate content, total organic carbon content, salt concentration and temperature. While the model is certainly a useful tool, it does not consider, for example, the possible effect of thermophilic corrosive bacteria, or the risk of corrosion when the tenperature is above 40°C. This model may not be useful in assessing MIC in, say, geo-thermal power plants [7]. 

The above exanples may serve to show that a better understanding of corrosion mechanisms and other involved factors can advance our understanding and power of corrosion prediction tremendously. It can also serve to enphasise that no matter how you do it, there are always factors in your list that may prevent it from being applicable everywhere and anytime. Therefore what will be discussed later in this chapter must be understood within the context of a being-useful-so-far basis. 

As always reminded, it is of great importance to be able to distinguish MIC from other types of corrosion and to find the best remedy for it otherwise, the problem will be increased. 

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