Cathodic protection has been used successfully on an uncoated, buried aluminum pipeline used to gather natural sweet gas in the Cantuar, Saskatchewan field of Western Canada.
Eleven months after installation of the line without any protection for corrosion control, the pipe was pitted deeply at six different locations where soil resistivities were under 1500 ohm-cm. Also, interference effects were noticed where cathodically protected and wrapped steel lines crossed the aluminum line at several locations.
The pitted areas were mapped and depths of many individual pits recorded. Then cathodic protection was applied. Nine months later when the line was re-excavated for inspection, measurements of the pits showed that the corrosion had been arrested.
Originally installed in August, 1958, by the Mobil Oil Company of Canada, Ltd., the gas line consisted of unprotected thin-walled pipe (AA3003 Alloy) in the following quantities and sizes: 3700 feet of 3-inch pipe with 0.083-inch wall, 20,000...
