Patent ID: 7951298

Claim:
A method of controlling a real-time oxidation-reduction potential (“ORP”) in a hot water system undergoing a wet layup sequence to inhibit corrosion in the hot water system, the method comprising: (a) separating the wet layup sequence into a plurality of phases, wherein each phase is either short-term or long-term, a subset of the short-term phases optionally being transitional; (b) defining one or more operational protective zones (“zone” or “zones”) in the hot water system; (c) selecting at least one of the defined zones for each phase, wherein one or more of the selected zones include at least one ORP probe operable to measure the real-time ORP at operating temperature and pressure, wherein said operating temperature and pressure vary depending on the particular phase of the wet layup sequence, and operable to communicate with a controller; (d) either intermittently or continuously measuring the real-time ORP in situ at operating temperature and pressure at one or more of the selected zones in one or more of the phases; (e) transmitting the measured real-time ORP to the controller; (f) assessing whether the measured real-time ORP or a calculated ORP based upon the measured real-time ORP conforms to an ORP setting for that phase; and (g) taking action to change the real-time ORP, if the measured real-time ORP or the calculated ORP does not conform to the ORP setting, wherein said action optionally includes feeding an effective amount of one or more active chemical species into the hot water system and/or altering the temperature of one or more zones in the hot water system.