An odd twist of corrosion & transmission
February 2nd, 2023
Jury awards Fayette County dairy $4.75M in stray voltage lawsuit
Here’s the part that jumped up and hollered:
I’m familiar with the notion that transmission lines over pipelines can/do corrode the pipeline, so this use of “an anti-corrosion system that sends electricity into the ground to protect the pipeline” seems counter intuitive. So digging just a bit, the term “cathodic protection,” which does ring a bell.
Cool Science: Using Electricity to Fight Corrosion
And that article says:
To fight corrosion, we employ a technique called cathodic protection, which literally uses electrical currents to prevent rust.
With cathodic protection, a flow of electrical current is applied from an external source – a rectifier – through the ground and onto the steel pipe. The protective current changes the environment around the steel, stopping the corrosion reaction.
And “cathodic protection” is not a new concept either.
The intersection of these two concepts is what’s got me stumped. Adding this to the list of things to look into when I’m in a warm and isolated cabin up north!