Every year, the United States spends nearly a trillion dollars fighting metallic corrosion, an electrochemical reaction that occurs when metals oxidize and begin to rust.
Every year, the United States spends nearly a trillion dollars fighting metallic corrosion, an electrochemical reaction that occurs when metals oxidize and begin to rust. By taking on this surprisingly insidious issue, researchers have now estimated how much corrosion is gradually worsening global carbon emissions.
Global steel production has been rising steadily for decades – and because steel has poor resistance to corrosion, part of that demand is to replace steel used in construction materials that have become corroded over time, in everything from bridges to automobiles. Reducing the amount of steel that needs to be replaced due to corrosion could have measurable effects on how much greenhouse gases are produced to make steel, said Gerald Frankel, co-author of the study and a professor in materials science and engineering at The Ohio State University,
Though previous studies have estimated the current economic cost of corrosion to be about 3 to 4% of a nation’s gross domestic product, this new study, led by Ohio State alum Mariano Iannuzzi, is the first to quantify the environmental impact associated with steel corrosion.
Read more at: Ohio State University
Photo Credit: elljay via Pixabay
