Mitigating Corrosion on the Dead Sea

Walk straight out into the water and just lean back.

This was the advice given to me when visiting the Dead Sea recently. With all of the warning signage around the beach, advising to seek immediate medical attention should the water get in your eyes or mouth, I must admit I was nervous to allow myself to let go and “just lean back”. I finally racked up the courage, identified where the lifeguard was sitting (just in case), held my breath, and leaned back… only to bob up like a buoy in a feeling I can only describe as sitting in midair.

The Dead Sea phenomenon is easily explained scientifically: The unusually high salt concentration in this body of water means that people can easily float due to natural buoyancy. While this brings in thousands of global tourists annually, it creates an incredibly corrosive environment for the concrete structures found on or near the Dead Sea. Even in normal warm marine environments, such as Hawaii, concrete structures face a constant battle against chlorides and sulfate ions that corrode the concrete and attack the steel substructure that holds it all together.

With 34.2% salinity, the Dead Sea is in fact almost nine times saltier than the ocean. For structures located anywhere near its shores, the protection of concrete and steel materials is a tremendous concern and requires careful foresight. At the Tel Aviv Waterproofing Convention, held in Israel last week, our VP of Product
Development, Kevin Yuers gave a presentation to 100 delegates on the topic of waterproofing and durability. During a panel discussion held following the presentation, one engineer in the audience spoke of using our Krystol Internal Membrane (KIM) waterproofing admixture in a project on the Dead Sea ten years. He went on to say that even in the extreme chloride conditions presented by that body of water, the project was a great success.

Now, when we are looking at marine infrastructure that is going up around the world, we often see concrete structure facing life shortening processes due to sea salt, wind and waves combining to attack reinforcing steel and quickly resulting in corrosion, expansive cracking and early destruction.

Experience has shown that the most effective, reliable and economical method of protecting these structures is by preventing water and waterborne chlorides from penetrating the concrete. Keep the water out and damage from corrosion, freezing and other water-caused effects can be eliminated.

Kevin Yuers explains, “The durability of key high risk infrastructure projects is crucial to protecting sensitive coastal environments, and steps must be taken to enhance the long-term durability of this type of infrastructure.”

Kryton will be holding a Press Conference at World of Concrete 2016 in Las Vegas next week, with Kevin Yuers discussing the importance of enhancing durability when constructing large scale infrastructure in high risk environments, where concrete is prone to deterioration.

The invitation is open to any media who would like to attend.

Date: February 2, 2016
Time: 10:00 am – 11:00am
Place: N251, World Of Concrete 2016, Las Vegas, NV

Spokesperson:
Kevin Yuers
Vice-President
Kryton International Inc.

Please contact Sarah Coull at scoull@kryton.com for more information, or to reserve your spot.

Kryton will be hosting a Happy Hour at the booth (11015 - South Hall) at 2pm every day of the show from February 2-4, 2016. Please join us as magician Jason Bird entertains with his mind blowing illusions!