Toward a better understanding of microbiologically influenced corrosion caused by sulfate reducing bacteria

doi:10.1016/j.jmst.2018.10.026

Abstract

Abstract:

Sulfate reducing bacteria (SRB) are often the culprits of microbiologically influenced corrosion (MIC) in anoxic environments because sulfate is a ubiquitous oxidant. MIC of carbon steel caused by SRB is the most intensively investigated topic in MIC because of its practical importance. It is also because biogenic sulfides complicate mechanistic SRB MIC studies, making SRB MIC of carbon steel is a long-lasting topic that has generated considerable confusions. It is expedient to think that biogenic H₂S secreted by SRB acidifies the broth because it is an acid gas. However, this is not true because endogenous H₂S gets its H⁺ from organic carbon oxidation and the fluid itself in the first place rather than an external source. Many people believe that biogenic H₂S is responsible for SRB MIC of carbon steel. However, in recent years, well designed mechanistic studies provided evidence that contradicts this misconception. Experimental data have shown that cathodic electron harvest by an SRB biofilm from elemental iron via extracellular electron transfer (EET) for energy production by SRB is the primary cause. It has been demonstrated that when a mature SRB biofilm is subjected to carbon source starvation, it switches to elemental iron as an electron source and becomes more corrosive. It is anticipated that manipulations of EET related genes will provide genetic-level evidence to support the biocathode theory in the future. This kind of new advances will likely lead to new gene probes or transcriptomics tools for detecting corrosive SRB strains that possess high EET capabilities.

Key words: Sulfate-reducing bacteria (SRB), Microbiologically influenced corrosion (MIC), Carbon steel, Extracellular electron transfer

Tingyue Gu, Ru Jia, Tuba Unsal, Dake Xu. Toward a better understanding of microbiologically influenced corrosion caused by sulfate reducing bacteria[J]. J. Mater. Sci. Technol., 2019, 35(4): 631-636.

Figures/Tables 3

Fig. 1. Bidirectional EET directions in MFC (with two bioelectrodes separated by a proton exchange membrane) and SRB MIC of carbon steel.

Fig. 2. EET in SRB MIC of carbon steel relying on an electron transport chain inside SRB and any of the following three methods for electron transfer from metal to SRB cell surface (only one contact point is shown for brevity): (a) direct electron transfer with outer cell membrane-bound c-cytochrome in contact with a steel surface or a semi-conductive FeS film, (b) direction electron transfer with a conductive pilus, and (c) mediated electron transfer with a redox-active electron mediator that goes through oxidation and reduction cycles.

Fig. 3. In SRB MIC of carbon steel, an unpassivated site (a), a site with a damaged iron sulfide passivation film (b), and a site with a less-passivated (e.g., less dense) film serve as anodic sites for iron oxidation while better passivated larger areas serve as cathodic sites for sulfate reduction by sessile SRB cells using extracellular electrons transferred through a semi-conductive FeS film, leading to pitting corrosion.

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