Case Studies of Microbiological Influenced Corrosion (MIC) in Pipelines

Paper ID: C2025-00168 ABSTRACT: Microbiologically influenced corrosion (MIC), also known as microbial corrosion, is a type of electrochemical corrosion that can be caused by the activity of microorganisms in oil and gas pipeline. Majority of the carbon steel pipelines are buried underground. Pipeline corrosion is influenced by a large number of factors such as soil resistivity, soil chemistry, temperature, pH, aeration, and microorganisms. MIC is the one closely related to the activity of living microorganisms in the soil, including microalgae, bacteria, archaea, and fungi. MIC, in any form, starts with the formation of a biofilm on the metal substrate and produce metabolic products which causes general or localized corrosion. Microbial corrosion of steel is divided into aerobic and anaerobic corrosions. Anaerobic microorganisms can also grow and control corrosion, in the absence of oxygen. When it comes to biocorrosion of steels, iron-reducing bacteria (IRB), iron- and manganese-oxidizing bacteria, acid-producing bacteria, and sulfate-reducing bacteria (SRB) are microorganisms which are recognized to have more detrimental effects. Several cases of MIC corrosion of pipeline steel due to the IRB and SRB was observed when tested for bacteria using Quantitative polymerase chain reaction (qPCR) DNA extraction method. This paper presents few such case studies.