In the oil industry most monitoring of microbiologically influenced corrosion (MIC) has in the past only been conducted on sulfate-reducing Bacteria (SRB) carried out by cultivation based techniques. The cultivation based techniques grossly underestimate the actual population sizes by several orders of magnitude since the majority of SRB are not readily viable in culture.

In this paper it is demonstrated that quantitative polymerase chain reaction (qPCR) is yielding improved information about troublesome microbes (TM) involved in MIC. The qPCR technique is based on an enzymatic reaction that exponentially copies a specific gene, i.e. the gene for sulfate reduction. qPCR protocols were developed for TM such as sulfate-reducing prokaryotes and methanogens and applied on a piece of corroded piping from the water outlet of a separator from the Halfdan oil field.

The results showed that not only SRB were involved in the observed MIC. High numbers of sulfate-reducing Archaea (SRA) and methanogens were also measured. Furthermore, the methanogens were particular abundant close to the metal/scale interface. The data indicate that the measured TM speed up the corrosion process by efficiently consuming hydrogen during dissolution of iron. Based on the results, the MIC mechanisms involving SRP and methanogens are discussed.

Subject
Archaea, Primers, Water, Piping, Methanogens, Metal surfaces, Interfaces, Bacteria, Surface layers, Oilfields, Microorganisms, Microbiologically influenced corrosion, Oil
Keywords:
sulfate-reducing Bacteria (SRB), sulfate-reducing Archaea (SRA), sulfate-reducing prokaryotes (SRP), methanogens, microbiologically influenced corrosion (MIC), quantitative polymerase chain reaction (qPCR), troublesome microbes (TM), Halfdan oil field, molecular microbiology methods (MMM)
© 2010 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).
2010
Association for Materials Protection and Performance (AMPP)
You do not currently have access to this content.