Microbiologically Influenced Corrosion (MIC) is a significant problem affecting the gas industry, particularly gas production operations. The most commonly used means of monitoring corrosion is to quantify the number of bacteria capable of growing in various microbial growth media after inoculation with water samples obtained from pipelines. However, it is becoming increasingly apparent that the number and type of bacteria present in water samples, as measured by microbial growth tests, does not correlate well with the presence or extent of corrosion in pipelines, and that microbial growth tests are slow and inaccurate. This paper describes the use of genetic techniques to characterize the types and abundance of bacterial species present in gas pipeline samples. While microbial growth tests quantify what grows under laboratory conditions, genetic tests quantify microbial populations actually present in pipeline samples and provide more precise, and more rapid data to monitor MIC in gas pipelines.

Subject
Archaea, Primers, Microbial communities, Methanogens, Polymerase chain reaction, Bacterial growth, Gas pipelines, Pipelines, Microbial growth, Bacteria, Microorganisms, Microbiologically influenced corrosion, Samples
Keywords:
MIC, microbiologically influenced corrosion, monitoring, gas, pipelines, genetic
© 2004 Association for Materials Protection and Performance (AMPP). All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means (electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise) without the prior written permission of AMPP. Positions and opinions advanced in this work are those of the author(s) and not necessarily those of AMPP. Responsibility for the content of the work lies solely with the author(s).
2004
Association for Materials Protection and Performance (AMPP)
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