Identification of Cooling Water Biofilms Using a Novel ATP monitoring Technique and their Control with the Use of Biodispersants

摘要

The present trend in industrial water systems is to minimize both water consumption and discharge by recycling/re-using as much water as possible. The use of such waters results in increased concentrations of both dissolved and suspended substances, which promote the growth of waterborne microorganisms. This will increase the potential for biofouling, which then may create corrosion problems in industrial water systems. Control of biofilm is achieved most effectively when the mechanism of formation is understood. It may be possible to reduce the biomass by adding an appropriate biodispersant to the system. However, biodispersant activity in water systems is poorly understood, partly because of a lack of screening methods for rapid evaluation on these types of chemicals. The key to measuring the effectiveness of any biodispersant, is the ability to quickly and accurately measure its efficacy to remove biofilms from all surfaces. The use of traditional microbiological analyses such as plate counts and dipslides, provide insufficient information about viable cell content and their role in deposit formation. The ATP assay, a newer technology, is more useful in correlating the results to biofilm removal.