Both electricity and chemistry were courses that got my attention when I was still studying Chemical Engineering. Little did I know that it was possible to combine these in electrochemistry to investigate corrosion.
My name is Brent Verhoeven, a PhD researcher at the university of Leuven. In 2017, I started my PhD on the corrosion behavior of resistant alloys (stainless steel, nickel-based alloys) in alkaline and sulfur-rich media. Unfortunately, my thesis is almost running to its end and therefore, I am happy that I got the opportunity to continue corrosion research on the SOCORRO project.
At the KU Leuven, we are conducting different corrosion experiments in water treatment plants. This all with the great help of colleague Burak Karabulut. The first case study involves a pilot-scale that removes residual nitrate from waste water (denitrification). In this aqueous environment, the corrosion behavior of (stainless) steel grades is assessed. The SOCORRO project also focusses on field measurements. Hence, we will also try to investigate the corrosion rate of those grades in real water treatment plants by the use of LPR and environmental probes. The collected data is used to train an AI risk algorithm which will enable us to understand and predict corrosion in different aqueous environments.
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