Underground Construction Technology International Conference & Exhibition

Municipal sewerage systems have precipitously become more corrosive due to increased biogenic sulfide corrosion activity. This corrosion mechanism is a bacterially mediated process of forming hydrogen sulfide gas and the subsequent biological conversion to sulfuric acid that attacks concrete and steel within wastewater environments. Traditional bonded coatings, as well as new high performance spray applied, protective lining technologies, are routinely failing in severe manhole environments. These failures are attributed to many factors including low permeability properties to resist H2S and other sewer gases present within these environments. This session will explain the biogenic sulfide corrosion process and inform the audience of an advanced laboratory testing protocol for rapidly evaluating the performance of protective linings in a simulated wastewater head space environment.