6. How MIC Is Detected and Recognised?

Little BJ, Wagner P (1997) Myths related to microbiologically influenced corrosion. Mater Perform (MP) 36(6):40–44. In this regard, see also: Ilhan-sungur E, Cansever N, Cotuk A (2007) Microbial corrosion of galvanized steel by a freshwater strain of sulphate reducing bacteria (Desulfovibrio sp.). Corros Sci 49(3):1097–1109. The general criteria for evaluation of soil microbial corrosivity based on SRB counts alone have been reported by Mizia RE, Alder Flitton MK, Bishop CW, Torres LL, Rogers RD, Wilkins SC (2000) in their report, “Long Term Corrosion/degradation Test First Year Results”, Idaho National Engineering and Environmental Laboratory, Sept 2000. On the other hand, for a general criteria for MIC in soil including bacteria such as SRB and iron bacteria, among others, see Stein AA (1993) MIC treatment and prevention. In: Kobrin G (ed) A practical manual on microbiologically-influenced Corrosion. NACE, Houston, TX, USA. The source for both the cited studies regarding a relationship between SRB numbers and the severity of corrosion is the paper by Ronay D, Fesus I, Wolkober A (1987) New aspects in research in biocorrosion of underground structures. Corrosion’ 87, Brighton, UK. According to this investigation, if the number of SRB per gram is less than 5 × 10³, there is no risk of MIC whereas a count of 10⁴ or more of SRB per gram of soil, is alarming a severe case of MIC. Kuwait oil company is reportedly targeting the following as maximum allowable bacterial counts (From: Al-Shamari AR, Al-Mithin AW, Prakash S, Islam M, Biedermann AL, Mathew A (2013) Some empirical observation about bacteria proliferation and corrosion damage morphology in Kuwait oilfield waters. Paper No. 2748, CORROSION 2013, Houston, TX, USA.

Hovarth RJ (1998) The role of the corrosion Engineer in the development and application of Risk-based inspection for plant equipment. Mater Perform (MP) 37(7)70–75.

Javaherdashti R (2007) How to deal with MIC? tips for industry. In:“MIC An International Perspective” Symposium, Extrin Corrosion Consultants-Curtin University, Perth-Australia, 14–15 Feb 2007.

Al-Darbi MM, Agha K, Islam KR (2005) Modeling and simulation of the pitting microbiologically influenced Corrosion in different industrial systems. Paper 05505, CORROSION 2005, NACE International, Houston TX, USA.

Of course here the reader will notice that using untreated water is also an important issue (wrong hydotesting) as mentioned in Chap. 5.

Scott PJB (2004b) Expert Consensus on MIC: Prevention and Monitoring, Part 1, Mater Perform (MP) 43(3):50–54

Jack TR (2002) Biological Corrosion Failures. Published by ASM International.

Olesen BH, Nielsen PH, Lewandowski Z (2000) Effect of Biomineralized Managanese on the Corrosion Behaviuor of C1008 Mild Steel. CORROSION 56(1):80–89.

Little BJ, Lee JS, Ray RI (2006) Diagnosing microbiologically influenced corrosion: a state-of-the-art review. CORROSION 62(11):1006–1017.

Cubicciotti D, Licina GL (1990) Electrochemical aspects of microbially induced corrosion. Mater Perform (MP) 29(1):72–75.

Tatnall RE, Pope DH (1993) Identification of MIC. Chapter 8. In: Kobrin G (ed) A practical manual on microbiologically-influenced corrosion. NACE, Houston, TX, USA.

de Romero M, Urdaneta S, Barrientos M, Romero G (2004) Correlation between Desulfovibrio Sessile Growth and OCP, Hydrogen Permeation, Corrosion Products and Morphological Attack on Iron. Paper No. 04576, CORROSION 2004, NACE International, Houston, TX, USA.

de Romero M, Duque Z, Rodriguez L, de Rincon O, Perez O, Araujo I (2005) A study of microbiologically induced corrosion by sulfate-reducing bacteria on carbon steel using hydrogen permeation. CORROSION 61(1):68–75.

Brooks WW (2013) Microbiologically influenced corrosion riviera park case study. Paper no. 2525, CORROSION 2013, Houston.

Lee AK, Buehler MG, Newman DK (2006) Influence of a Dual-species Biofilm on the Corrosion of Mild Steel. Corros Sci 48 (1):165–178.

Liu H, Xu L, Zeng J (2000) Role of Corrosion products in biofilms in microbiologically induced corrosion of carbon steel. Br Corros J 35(2):131–135.

Tiller AK (1983) Microbial Corrosion. In: Proceedings of microbial corrosion, 8–10 March 1983, The Metals Society, London, UK.

Javaherdashti R (Javaherdashti 2005) Microbiologically influenced Corrosion and cracking of mild and stainless steels. Ph.D. thesis, Monash University, Australia.

Javaherdashti R, Sarioglu F, Aksoz N (1997) Corrosion of drilling pipe steel in an environment containing sulphate-reducing bacteria. Int J Pres Ves And Piping 73:127–131.

Blackburn FE (2004) Non-BIOASSAY Techniques for Monitoring MIC. Paper 04580, CORROSION 2004, NACE International, Houston, TX, USA.

Scott PJB (2004a) Expert consensus on MIC: failure analysis and control. Part 2, Mater Perform (MP) 43(4):46–50.

Sand W (1997) Microbial mechanisms of deterioration of inorganic substrates-a general mechanistic overview. Int Biodeterior Biodegradation 40(2–4):183–190.

Scott PJB (2000) Microbiologically influenced corrosion monitoring: real world failures and how to avoid them. Mater Perform (MP) 39(1)54–59.

McNeil MB, Little BJ (1990) Technical note: mackinawite formation during microbial corrosion. CORROSION 46(7):599–600.

Newman RC, Rumash K, Webster BJ (1992) The effect of pre-corrosion on the corrosion rate of steel in natural solutions containing sulphide: relevance to microbially influenced corrosion. Corros Sci 33(12):1877–1884.

Yee GG, Whitbeck MR (2004) A microbiologically influenced corrosion study in fire protection systems. Paper No. 04602, CORROSION 2004, NACE International, Houston, TX, USA.

Maxwell S, Devine C, Rooney F, Spark I (2004) Monitoring and control of bacterial biofilms in oilfield water handling systems. Paper 04752, CORROSION 2004, NACE International, Houston, TX, USA.

Little B, Lee J, Ray R (2007) New development in mitigation of microbiologically influenced corrosion. In: “MIC An International Perspective” Symposium, Extrin Corrosion Consultants-Curtin University, Perth-Australia, 14–15 Feb 2007.

Setareh M, Javaherdashti R (2003) Precision comparison of some SRB detection methods in industrial systems. Mater Perform (MP) 42(5):60–63.

One of culture-dependent methods is the Most probable Number (MPN) that has been reported to “underestimate the size and misrepresent the composition of microbial communities”, see Ref. Kilbane (2014).

Videla H (2007) Biofilms in pipelines and their treatment in the oil industry. In: “MIC An International Perspective” Symposium, Extrin Corrosion Consultants-Curtin University, Perth-Australia, 14–15 Feb 2007.

Sampling and preserving the samples could be a really tough issue especially due to practicality of these practices. If sampling and handling are carried out in a manner that the microbial samples get contaminated or die during transportation, the results could become highly dubious.

Zhu XY, Modi H, Ayala A, Kilbane JJ (2006) Rapid detection and quantification of microbes related to microbiologically influenced Corrosion using quantitative polymerase chain reaction . CORROSION 62(11):950–955.

King RA (2007) Trends and developments in microbiologically induced corrosion in the oil and gas industry. In: “MIC An International Perspective” Symposium, Extrin Corrosion Consultants-Curtin University, Perth-Australia, 14–15 Feb 2007.

Kajiyama F, Okamura K (1999) Evaluating cathodic protection reliability on steel pipes in microbially active soils. CORROSION 55(1):74–80.

Although in this report the type of the bacteria (IOB or IRB) has not been specified, from general recognition of iron bacteria [see “Standard Test Method for Iron Bacteria in Water & Water-formed Deposits”, ASTM D932-85 (Re-approved 1997), ASTM annual book, ASTM, USA, 1997.], it may be anticipated that it was iron-oxidising bacteria whose number had been adversely affected by applying voltage.

Pope DH, Zintel TP, Aldrich H, Duquette D (1990) Efficacy of biocides and corrosion inhibition in the control of microbiologically influenced corrosion. Mater Perform (MP) 29(12):49–55.

Videla HA (1996) Manual of biocorrosion. CRC press, Inc.

Stott JFD, Skerry BS, King RA (1998) Laboratory evaluation of materials for resistance to anaerobic corrosion caused by sulphate reducing bacteria: philosophy and practical design, the use of synthetic environments for corrosion testing. In: Francis PE, Lee TS(eds) ASTM STP 970, ASTM, pp 98–111.

Dexter SC, Duquette DJ, Siebert OW, Videla HA (1991) Use and limitations of electrochemical techniques for investigating microbial corrosion. CORROSION 47(4):308–318.

Dexter SC (1995) Microbiological effects. In: Baboian R (ed) Corrosion tests and standards:application and interpretatiuon. ASTM Manual Series: MNL 20, ASTM.

Jack TR, Ringelberg DB, White DC (1992) Differential Corrosion Rates of carbon Steel by Combinations of Bacillus sp., HAFNIA ALVEI and DESULFOVIBRIO GIGAS Established by Phospholipid Analysis of Electrode Biofilm . Corros Sci 33(12):1843–1853.

Michael JF, White DC, Isaacs HS (1991) Pitting Corrosion by Bacteria on Carbon Steel, Determined by the Scanning Vibrating Electrode Technique. Corros Sci 32(9):945–952.

Just imagine the situation which is not MIC-related but due to the insistence of the engineer, the management goes through heaps of money spending and then it is realised that the case was not an example of microbial corrosion at all. It must be the hardest imaginable task to convince the same management about another case that indeed could be microbially induced corrosion. All this could have been prevented if the engineer in charge had first investigated the possibility of non-MIC corrosion. Another extreme is, of course, denying MIC all togethetr; Tatnall describes such misinterpretations as addressing cases where microbial tuberculation corrosion of steels being called water corrosion or under-deposit corrosion by “those [corrosion engineers] who do not understand (or believe in) the biological factors”, [see Tatnall RE (1991) Case histories: biocorrosion. In: H-C Flemming, GG Geesey (eds) Biofouling and biocorrosion in industrial water systems. Springer, Berlin, Hedelberg, Germany].