Zineb Belarbi, Ph.D., a leading corrosion and electrochemistry researcher at NETL’s Albany, Oregon, facility, was recognized by the Association for Materials Protection and Performance (AMPP) with the Joyce Wright Industry Impact Award in ceremonies held at the association’s annual conference March 6 in New Orleans.

The Joyce Wright Industry Impact Award recognizes women who have contributed to creating a positive impact on the culture of the materials protection and performance industry, mentoring, and providing wisdom to others in the industry. It is named for Joyce Wright, chair of AMPP Global Center and process improvement specialist at Huntington Ingals Industries Newport News Shipbuilding.

Belarbi’s work focuses on overcoming corrosion challenges in the nation’s methane mitigation and CO₂ transport and storage efforts. She is a regular contributor to AMPP conferences and publications.

“My research at NETL focuses on evaluation of corrosion performance of steel alloys and mitigation of internal corrosion in natural gas pipelines,” Belarbi explained last year. “In addition, I support other projects such as the National Energy Water Treatment and Speciation (NEWTS) Database and geologic carbon storage.”

Belarbi was part of an NETL team that invented a new self-healing cold spray coating for internal pipeline corrosion protection that can help protect against corrosion in natural gas, hydrogen and CO₂ pipelines. Pipeline corrosion can cause catastrophic failure events such as explosions and emissions of environmentally damaging substances like methane.

“My professor at college inspired me to pursue a career of engineering,” Belarbi said. “I am a very curious and experimental person, and I love that the combination of engineering and chemistry offers us the ability to design and create new materials that can improve and advance the economy.”

Belarbi received a Ph.D. in chemical engineering from Sorbonne University (ex. Pierre and Marie Curie University-Paris IV) France in 2013. She built a solid background in electrochemistry to further explore the inhibition of calcium carbonate deposition on metal surfaces.

Before joining NETL, Belarbi was a project leader at the Institute for Corrosion and Multiphase Technology at Ohio University where her research focused on using corrosion inhibitors to mitigate internal corrosion in oil and gas pipelines. Belarbi also worked at the Institute for Sustainable Energy and the Environment, Ohio University, where she investigated the electrochemical removal of nutrients from animal wastewater.

AMPP is a global community of professionals focused on the protection of assets and the performance of industrial and natural materials. AMPP is the world’s largest corrosion control and protective coatings organization, serving more than 35,000 members in over 140 countries. AMPP is headquartered in the United States with offices in Houston and Pittsburgh, and additional offices in Brazil, Canada, China, Dubai (training center), Malaysia, Saudi Arabia and the United Kingdom. 

NETL is a U.S. Department of Energy national laboratory that drives innovation and delivers technological solutions for an environmentally sustainable and prosperous energy future. By using its world-class talent and research facilities, NETL is ensuring affordable, abundant and reliable energy that drives a robust economy and national security, while developing technologies to manage carbon across the full life cycle, enabling environmental sustainability for all Americans.