Dr. Kane is currently an internationally recognized corrosion and materials consultant who has applied his expertise to a diversity of industrial problems including research, engineering design, corrosion prediction and failure analysis. He was previously the Founder of InterCorr International, Inc., a major corrosion services and technology company that was acquired by Honeywell in 2005.
Dr. Kane has worked as an independent consultant with many major international petroleum, chemical and other end-user companies, equipment manufacturers, and materials suppliers on materials evaluation, research, selection and specification; including corrosion, inhibition, plant and field corrosion evaluation, structure/property relationships, simulation and testing in service environments.
He has dealt with the in-service corrosion, metallurgical and mechanical performance of materials, the development and utilization of corrosion testing and monitoring methods, and simulation of corrosive service environments in the laboratory, investigation of failures, and utilizing computer tools related to the following areas:
- High temperatures and pressures
- Hydrogen embrittlement, hydrogen sulfide and sulfur species
- Chemical & multiphase (oil/gas/water) environments
- Refinery high temperature naphthenic acid and sulfidic corrosion
- Ammonium bisulfide (sour water), sulfuric acid alkylation, crude overhead, and amine corrosion
- Vapor phase and condensing media
- SCC in fuel ethanol and blends
He is a recognized expert on materials selection for prevention of corrosion, hydrogen embrittlement and stress corrosion cracking that are manifested in the following operations: drilling, oil and gas well completions, pipelines, offshore and deep-water structures and refining, chemicals and transportation. His work has also emphasized evaluation and specifications for prevention of degradation phenomenon (i.e., hydrogen damage, hydrogen embrittlement (and sulfide stress cracking), corrosion, pitting, velocity accelerated corrosion, and stress corrosion cracking). He has also investigated corrosion and chemical attack in advanced materials such as carbon and low alloy steels, stainless steels, nickel, aluminum and titanium alloys, coatings, composites and ceramics.
The effects of H2S have been an active area of his consulting involving selection, evaluation and specification of:
- High strength carbon and low alloy steels for pipelines, OCTG and coiled tubing
- Cold worked and precipitation hardened stainless steels and nickel base alloys
- High strength titanium alloys
for downhole and production applications involving exposure to H2S, CO2, brine, stimulation acids and completion/packer fluids. His early work at Exxon involved a major role in pioneering the development, evaluation and use of high strength nickel-based alloys for downhole tubulars and components in oil and gas wells.
While at InterCorr and later as a consultant, Dr. Kane and his associates at InterCorr (now Honeywell Corrosion Solutions), have conducted detailed laboratory simulations and computer modeling of multiphase environments (with CO2 and/or H2S) related to oil and gas production and gas transmission pipelines. These studies have been used to evaluate corrosivity, sulfide stress cracking tendencies and the effectiveness of inhibitor formulations for effectiveness under various flow regimes and conditions of phase behavior. The results of these investigations have been successfully implemented in oil and gas pipelines and storage facilities in major fields in the United States, South America, the North Sea, Middle East and Asia-Pacific regions. This work also included thermodynamic and corrosion modeling and assessment of corrosion in one of the largest floating production and handling systems involving corrosion in both the liquid and condensing vapor phases in the vessel. His expertise in corrosion was utilized by a multi-industry/government team to develop a predictive method for corrosion assessment on military and civilian vehicles.