Change in the microbial community of saline geothermal fluids amended with a scaling inhibitor: effects of heat extraction and nitrate dosage.

Abstract

Geothermal plants are often affected by corrosion caused by microbial metabolites such as H2S. In the Bad Blumau (Austria) geothermal system, an increase in microbially produced H2S was observed in the hot (107°C) and scaling inhibitor-amended saline fluids and in fluids that had cooled down (45°C). Genetic fingerprinting and quantification revealed the dominance, increasing abundance and diversity of sulfate reducers such as Desulfotomaculum spp. that accompanied the cooling and processing of the geothermal fluids. In addition, a δ34S isotopic signature showed the microbial origin of the H2S that has been produced either chemolithotrophically or chemoorganotrophically. A nitrate addition test in a test pipe as a countermeasure against the microbial H2S formation caused a shift from a biocenosis dominated by bacteria of the phylum Firmicutes to a community of Firmicutes and Proteobacteria. Nitrate supported the growth of nitrate-reducing sulfur-oxidizing Thiobacillus thioparus, which incompletely reduced nitrate to nitrite. The addition of nitrate led to a change in the composition of the sulfate-reducing community. As a result, representatives of nitrate- and nitrite-reducing SRB, such as Desulfovibrio and Desulfonatronum, emerged as additional community members. The interaction of sulfate-reducing bacteria and nitrate-reducing sulfur-oxidizing bacteria (NR-SOB) led to the removal of H2S, but increased the corrosion rate in the test pipe.