Metals are subject to corrosion in most chemical environments, for example, metals corrode in contact with water, moisture, acids, bases, salts, oils, gaseous substances and other chemicals. In general, minerals are more corrosive than organic substances. For example, corrosion in the oil, gas and petrochemical industries is often caused by the effects of minerals such as chlorine, sulfur, etc., rather than by organic substances such as oil, petroleum and diesel.

Failure to pay attention to corrosion problems in any industrial and manufacturing unit results in hidden costs that are impossible to avoid. Economic considerations are essential in each of the corrosion control methods. Of course, there is no need to choose the most expensive corrosion control methods, because the costs incurred may not be economically justified and waste capital.

Corrosion is one of the most important problems in the cooling tower and causes cost loss and reduced efficiency of the tower. The presence of various factors in the tower makes it easy for corrosion to occur in the cooling tower. The presence of water as an electrolyte and also the presence of metals of different types in the tower as cathode and anode provides the basis for creating a chemical cell on a large scale.

Corrosion in steam boilers is caused by chemical and electrochemical reactions of metal with its surrounding environment. The most important corrosion factors in steam boilers are oxygen corrosion, carbon dioxide corrosion, corrosion due to pH drop, alkalinity corrosion, corrosion of hydrolyzable salts and corrosion of organic materials.

Corrosion in various industries, including in the oil and gas industries, imposes heavy sums of money to replace or repair equipment and machinery every year. Every year, 5% of the country's gross national product is wasted due to corrosion, and out of this 5%, about a fifth of it occurs in the oil, gas and petrochemical industries. One of the types of corrosion in oil and gas industries is corrosion caused by hydrogen sulfide gas.

سرمایه گذاری در کنترل خوردگی نوعی سودآوری است. عدم توجه به مشکلات خوردگی در هر واحد صنعتی و تولیدی، هزینه های پنهانی به دنبال دارد که اجتناب از آن غیر ممکن است. اولین قدم در اقتصاد خوردگی انتخاب روشی مناسب به منظور حداکثر کاهش هزینه های خوردگی است. این هزینه ها می تواند شامل: مخارج تولید و تجهیزات، از بین رفتن محصولات با ارزش، ظاهر نامطلوب محصول، هزینه های زیست محیطی و … باشد.

میزان تاثیر عوامل مختلف در خسارات ناشی از خوردگی عبارتند از : 1_ طراحی، انتخاب مواد و فرآیند 2_ فقدان دستورالعمل های لازم 3_ خطای انسانی 4_ بازرسی ضعیف 5_ چیدمان، نصب و هماهنگی ضعیف 6_ عدم پیش بینی موارد ناخواسته 7_ سایر موارد