Patent ID: 8137528

Claim:
A method for operating a component of metal being exposed to a corroding medium, the component being combined with a sacrificial anode, the component and the sacrificial anode are provided in and are contacting the same corroding medium, and are mounted such that they exclusively make galvanic contact with each other through the corroding medium, and a galvanic circuit with galvanic solid state elements is used, for one or more of: cathodic protection of the component, measuring a condition of the component, retarding or avoiding fouling of the component; wherein the sacrificial anode is an energy source used in the galvanic circuit for supplying one or more of: a pulsating current, a voltage, an automatic adapted galvanic current, and a protection potential, wherein the sacrificial anode is connected through an astable multivibrator with germanium transistors to the metal structure, wherein the sacrificial anode supplies a direct current (DC) transferred by the astabile multivibrator into an alternating current, such that a pulsating potential is supplied to the metal structure, wherein with a resistor of the CP-system the basis of the transistor switches, wherein the basis of the transistor is switched by a sensor.