Corrosion products associated with attached bacteria at an oil field water injection plant

Abstract

Attached populations of corrosion enhancing sulfate-reducing bacteria (SRB) and organic acid-producing bacteria (APB) were measured on steel plugs at an oil field water injection plant near Wainwright, Alberta. The sample plugs were colonized to ca. 106 SRB/cm2. Counts for APB ranged from 102 to 10/cm2. Scanning electron microscopic examination of the sample plugs revealed an uneven distribution of surface corrosion deposits. A thin iron sulfide layer covered most of the exposed areas. Thicker sulfur-enriched deposits occurred randomly. The bulk of the thicker deposits were smooth, whereas peripheral regions exhibited a porous texture. The elemental composition of the different regions was the same; however, bacterial cells were concentrated in the porous areas and were not found in the thinner deposits. In transmission electron microscopic thin sections cut perpendicularly through corrosion deposits, bacterial cells were found mineralized in successive stages by iron sulfides. The corrosion deposit matrix also generated strong Cl peaks in energy dispersive X-ray spectra. This entrainment of bacterial cells within a corrosion deposit matrix is consistent with the concept of bacterial enhancement of corrosion by removal of reducing power from iron sulfides galvanically coupled to the steel surface. Key words: microbial corrosion, iron sulfide, cathodic hydrogen, electron microscopy.