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Corrosion Defense
June 1, 2008 By: Brian Richesson LPGasWith more customers choosing to hide their propane tanks with popular underground installations, the need to protect steel vessels from moisture and chemicals in the soil has never been greater.
That's why the Propane Education & Research Council (PERC) is launching an instructional program to explain and demonstrate the process of cathodic protection to guard against corrosion of underground tanks. PERC saw a need to explain the importance of such a complex issue, choosing a format that combines text and video.
"When we talk about causes of corrosion and how to prevent corrosion, there's a lot of information out there," says Stuart Flatow, vice president for safety and training for PERC. "We wanted to put something together so marketers can train people in a way they can understand, and assess their ability to understand, the principles and practices."
 Dave Allen demonstrates cathodic protection tests during filming of the video. |
Mike Walters addressed cathodic protection two years ago when he wrote a white paper on the subject. The national safety training manager for AmeriGas, Walters believed the installation process was flawed.
"We have people installing cathodic protection in this industry, and a majority of them are putting it in because they are told to – not because they understand why," Walters says. "They don't know how to install it properly, they haven't been trained properly, they don't know how to activate it properly, and they don't know how to test for it correctly."
 Industry members say more tanks are being installed underground. Therefore, the need to protect them increases. |
Taking the lead
PERC's Safety and Training Advisory Committee (STAC), chaired by Walters, spearheaded the program. Funding was designated in phases, with the focus first on the written script and then video production. PERC has spent $140,000 on the project.
"It's cheaper to make changes to paper than video or computer, and it allows us to get much tighter arms around how long video production might be," Flatow says. "Let's write the script first, see what we have from there and have a better idea of what our needs will be for production."
 Even the slightest scratch on a new tank can lead to corrosion. |
PERC presented this information at the National Propane Gas Association's marketers meeting in February in San Diego, giving industry members a chance to review the materials and provide feedback. A task force, headed by Lyndon Rickards of Eastern Propane Gas Inc., also was established to review comments from the industry and add insight to the project. The process involved many reviews and conference calls.
"This is something the industry has needed for many years," says Rickards, safety and training manager for Eastern Propane and also a STAC member. "We've been doing cathodic protection for years, but our people out there physically doing the work at the grassroots level didn't really understand it that much. We threw it in the ground and hooked it up to the tanks – now what?
 Before the tanks are buried, any marks must be touched up. |
"This program has done a tremendous job of taking a high-level topic and bringing it down to a grassroots level."
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