Battelle Database to Explore Tank-Truck Corrosiveness
This story appears in the June 6 print edition of Transport Topics.
Engineers at Battelle Memorial Institute are building an online database that will inform fleet managers about the corrosiveness of liquid chemicals on stainless steel tank trailers.
Two senior researchers are doing the work for the National Tank Truck Carriers, and they hope to have it available for the trade group’s members by November.
Doug Pape and Barry Hindin said they will study 300 chemicals that are frequently hauled in stainless steel tanks. Hindin said corrosion is usually measured in mils (or one-thousandth of an inch) per year.
In some cases, there will be several evaluations of a given compound based on differences in temperature and concentration.
The database will not give fleets simple yes-or-no recommendations, Hindin said, “but it will support better decision- making.”
For very corrosive chemicals, a carrier might want to cap the time in which the load is held within a tank and accelerate the wash-out time after delivery.
“Or he might want to pass all together,” Hindin said.
Typically the chemicals attack the steel, causing pitting on the interior surface.
“Once stainless steel pits, the problem doesn’t go away or fix itself,” Hindin said. Once the pitting process starts, it becomes easier for residue to linger, causing the pitting to accelerate, he added.
Much of the information can be gleaned from material safety data sheets, or MSDSs, that manufacturers are obligated to produce. Among other things, these tell carriers how to placard their hazardous material loads on their tanks.
In addition to analyzing published literature, Hindin said he and Pape would do chemical testing at Columbus, Ohio-based Battelle Memorial.
They said they also expect to use information garnered from tank truck carriers’ long-established relationships with shipping manufacturers who already know a great deal about what they haul.
In other cases, though, carriers get calls from potential new customers and need to learn quickly about those products, Pape said.
Hindin and Pape said the database will be applicable only for chemicals in steel tanks. It will not cover petroleum products in aluminum tanks or liquid food products.
Last month, Battelle announced that its scientists developed the Battelle Smart Corrosion Detector, tiny beads that look like powder. When mixed with coatings they reveal corrosion forming on metal before it is visible to the naked eye. Once activated, the 20- to 50-micron beads release a proprietary chemical that fills the cracks.
