Is there any good scope in working in cathodic protection field in underground pipeline company?

Cathodic protection is basically aimed for reducing the corrosion in hazardous and other industries from the chemicals, sea water or such liquids which are used in manufacturing and supporting other relevant industries. In presence of the chemicals certain metals start losing their material due to the ionic exchanges and feeble currents and it finally leads to high scale corrosion and destroys the material. So, cathodic protection is an important matter in the industry and engineers from chemical or mechanical or other specialised courses are employed in this work. Corrosion of buried pipelines is a matter of great concern and challenge for the engineers. Cathodic protection plays a great role there. Industrial work is a hazardous work as there are certain exigencies while working. Every job is not like a white collar job which can be done sitting at one place. Companies would not hire cathodic protection experts in each base or unit but will like to have a few persons available for monitoring it everywhere so movement and rushing to sites would be a usual thing. I have attended some offshore oil exploration work and gone to the drilling ships where the sea water eats the metallic parts of the ship or the structure. There also cathodic protection is a must and a very important aspect and the engineer in charge himself monitors that. The job on the ships are generally a paying jobs but the duties are tough there also. So, in my experience there is no place in the industry where a cathodic protection engineer or technician would sit cozily.

One thing which can be thought in this matter is that there are some institutes where the work on corrosion monitoring and cathodic protection is taken up as a research project and various new techniques are devised and are being invented. If someone has that type of academic interest then with ones experience one can try in such institutes for a job which would be related to the cathodic protection but will be away from the field jobs. One such institution is Central Electrochemical Research Institute which carries out work in this area. Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) has also considered this area as the thrust area for finding newer ways of managing cathodic protection. So from that angle some scope will be there for a job in such institutions.

Cathodic protection is a specialised operation. This technique is widely used to protect critical infrastructure from corrosion. Gas and oil pipelines, offshore gas and renewable energy structures, some parts of the ships require this cathodic protection for durability. During their usage also thorough inspections, third-party audits and certifications are required for these structures. There are standards like BS ENs and BS EN ISOs for cathodic protection applications. The Institute of Corrosion offers courses in cathodic protection and give the required training for levels 1 to 3 for cathodic protection. There are many areas where these specialists are required and these jobs are highly paid jobs. But risks will be there. In any manufacturing industry, where shop floor work is required the work will be hard only and it will not be like an IT on where you can sit in an AC room and work on a Laptop.
But many certifying bodies will absorb these specialists and send them for third party inspections and audits. Such works may give some less hazardous work but they have to travel a lot. There are some R&D laboratories are there were some extensive research work is going on. These specialists may have a chance in those labs also.
There are some institutions where they will be training the fresh graduates and giving them a certificate which will be useful for them to obtain a job. In those institutions, there may be some teaching position to teach people about these techniques. Already qualified and experience people can join there as lecturers where no hazard is involved as it is only a teaching job.

The job assigned to you on monitoring catholic protection is really a challenging job and you have to be watchful to avert the corrosion to a minimum rate with slight modification in the pipe so that the rate of corrosion is retarded significantly.
Instead of being frustrated, you need to go through the basic cause resulting in acceleration of the corrosion and should make an attempt to have the coordination with the manufacturer stressing them to plug the holes of the pipe to a certain level ranging between 10 to the power -2 mm to 10 to the power -3 mm. The material should be closely densed pack with the requisite level of manganese content in the pipe. This technical explanation can well be understood by the metallurgical engineers.
Again the grain structure of the pipe should be uniform throughout its internal and outer space areas. This would call for the mechanical testing of the material from some laboratory of repute. Instead of thinking that you are heavily stressed, take it as a challenge and have talk with the personnel of the plant where the pipe lines are manufactured. With the active coordination, desired result could be achieved. In that way, you would be treated as super performer in accomplishment of your task.
CFIR known as Central Fuel Research Institute conducts different research to improve the quality of material. Your training through the management side to this Institution would be quite helpful for both yourself and your employer.