Materials Performance

MAR 2017

Materials Performance is the world's most widely circulated magazine dedicated to corrosion prevention and control. MP provides information about the latest corrosion control technologies and practical applications for every industry and environment.

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15 NACE INTERNATIONAL: VOL. 56, NO. 3 MATERIALS PERFORMANCE MARCH 2017 Lisa Gieg samples an anaerobic microbial culture for MIC experiments. Photo courtesy of Riley Brandt, University of Calgary. Continued on page 16 have ty pically been studied by researchers in isolated disciplines with minimal collabora- tion between the f ields of study. A major gap in understanding MIC and how to effectively pre- dict, monitor for, and mitigate MIC has been due to a disconnect between disciplines. What this project aims to do, Wolodko continues, is study MIC in a comprehensive manner, including the use of advanced genom- ics. "It's the tool we will use to dig deeper into the vast population that we don't have an under- standing of yet," he says. This is expected to lead to the development of better MIC management practices for the study's targeted oil and gas environments through improved mitigation strategies and stan- dards that can be used by operators to rou- tinely assess MIC so early action can be taken to prevent failures. The work will be carried out by a mul- tidisciplinary alliance of researchers who have experience in microbiolog y, genom- ics, chemistry, corrosion, and engineer- ing. The research team will collect sam- ples from different products in multiple geographic regions, including both off- shore infrastructure and upstream pipe- lines and transmission pipelines, so they can study the various physical character- istics and different f luid chemistries associated with MIC in oil and gas infra- structure. By using the latest in genomics techniques, the interdisciplinary team will be able to look for trends related to specif ic microbes and chemistries that lead to microbial corrosion. Ultimately, the project will lead to better predictions of whether microbial corrosion will occur in a given oil and gas operation. As a f irst step, genomic techniques will be used to identif y all of the micro - organisms that exist in a sample, and then determine the organisms' specif ic traits to better understand their meta- bolic activity. A genome is the genetic material (DNA) of an organism that deter- mines the traits that the organism pos- sesses. Using specif ic genomic laboratory techniques, the genes and DNA from all organisms in a sample can be extracted and analyzed based on what the research- ers want to know. This approach provides a better opportunity to understand which microorganisms ty pically comprise the Information on corrosion control and prevention

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