Investigation of microbial souring mechanisms and test of natural antibiotics for MIC prevention

Offshore oil production facilities are subjectable to internal piping corrosion, potentially leading to human and environmental risk, and significant economic losses. Microbiologically influenced corrosion (MIC) and souring (sulphide production by Sulfate-reducing prokaryotes) from bacteria (SRB) or archaea (SRA) occur due to water flooding during secondary oil recovery, where the seawater used can contain large amounts of sulfate (25-30 mM). MIC is often seen as localized pitting attack that is generally associated with the presence of microbial communities embedded in a matrix (often with bioinorganic matrixes) referred to as biofilms. Active phytochemicals including strong antimicrobials from halophytes will be applied in this study to combat MIC by inhibiting MIC microorganisms such as methanogens and SRP. A bioreactor system for biofilm production was setup and inoculated with Wadden Sea sediments to emulated onsite MIC.