13 research outputs found
Characterization of corrosive bacterial consortia isolated from petroleum-product-transporting pipelines
Microbiologically influenced corrosion is a problem
commonly encountered in facilities in the oil and gas
industries. The present study describes bacterial enumeration
and identification in diesel and naphtha pipelines
located in the northwest and southwest region in India,
using traditional cultivation technique and 16S rDNA gene
sequencing. Phylogenetic analysis of 16S rRNA sequences
of the isolates was carried out, and the samples obtained
from the diesel and naphtha-transporting pipelines showed
the occurrence of 11 bacterial species namely Serratia
marcescens ACE2, Bacillus subtilis AR12, Bacillus cereus
ACE4, Pseudomonas aeruginosa AI1, Klebsiella oxytoca
ACP, Pseudomonas stutzeri AP2, Bacillus litoralis AN1,
Bacillus sp., Bacillus pumilus AR2, Bacillus carboniphilus
AR3, and Bacillus megaterium AR4. Sulfate-reducing
bacteria were not detected in samples from both pipelines.
The dominant bacterial species identified in the petroleum
pipeline samples were B. cereus and S. marcescens in the
diesel and naphtha pipelines, respectively. Therefore,
several types of bacteria may be involved in biocorrosion
arising from natural biofilms that develop in industrial
facilities. In addition, localized (pitting) corrosion of the
pipeline steel in the presence of the consortia was observed
by scanning electron microscopy analysis. The potential
role of each species in biofilm formation and steel corrosion
is discussed