Understanding the biochemistry of Microbiologically influenced corrosion diagnostic methods

以铁(和其他金属)为基础的基础设施(例如管道)的腐蚀是发电、石油生产、运输、饮料生产和水储存和分配等许多行业面临的一个代价巨大的问题。据估计，这一成本约占加拿大年度国内生产总值的3%。防腐不是一件容易的事，而且很难实现。现在已经知道，微生物(细菌和真菌)在许多情况下可以引起和/或加剧金属腐蚀--这种现象被称为微生物影响腐蚀(MIC)，它使腐蚀处理和预防复杂化。OSP Microcheck Inc.等生物技术公司生产帮助诊断MIC的产品。一旦诊断正确，MIC型腐蚀可以比不诊断更有效地治疗或进一步预防。目前使用的MIC诊断方法可以识别微生物的存在，但不能准确地识别存在哪些微生物。由于并不是所有的微生物都会造成腐蚀，识别微生物的存在将是非常有益的，甚至有可能在微生物存在时防止不必要和昂贵的治疗，但实际发生MIC型腐蚀的风险是最小的。这种学术和行业互动将探索创新OSP Microcheck目前的MIC诊断方法之一的可能性，使其能够发现和识别导致MIC型腐蚀的微生物。这项工作将填补在理解MIC诊断技术背后的生物化学方面的知识空白，这些信息对于进一步开发一种既能增强MIC诊断又能使其更具成本效益的产品的技术至关重要。

Corrosion of iron (and other metals)-based infrastructure (for example, pipes) is an enormously costly problem faced by many industries including power generation, oil production, transportation, beverage production and water storage and distribution. Estimates of the cost are on the order of ~3% of Canada's annual gross domestic product, GDP. Corrosion prevention is not trivial, and can be highly difficult to achieve. It is now known that microorganisms (bacteria and fungi) can in many cases cause and/or worsen metal corrosion - a phenomenon known as microbiologically influenced corrosion (MIC), which complicates corrosion treatment and prevention. Biotechnology companies such as OSP Microcheck Inc produce products to help diagnose for MIC. Once diagnosed correctly, MIC type corrosion can be treated or further prevented more effectively than if left undiagnosed. Currently used MIC diagnostic methods recognise the presence of microbes, but are incapable of identifying exactly which microbes are present. As not all microbes will actually cause corrosion, it would be of great benefit to identify the microbes present, potentially even preventing un-needed and costly treatments when microbes are present, but the actual risk of MIC type corrosion is minimal. This academic-industry interaction will explore the possibility of innovating one of OSP Microcheck's current MIC diagnostic methods such that it is capable of both finding and identifying the microbes causing MIC type corrosion. This work will fill a knowledge gap in the understanding of the biochemistry behind MIC diagnostic techniques, information key to further technology developments towards a product that would both enhance MIC diagnoses and render them more cost-effective.