Metabolomic Footprinting and MIC within Water Supply Networks

摘要

This paper considers the unique chemical signature that corrosion inducing microbial cellular processes leave behind. This type of scientific study, otherwise known as metabolomics, is proposed as a tool for the management of water supply networks. The metabolites from a range of physico-biochemical reactions which occur within pipe biofilms are utilised in order to characterise a series of chemical compounds that are associated with microorganisms that are believed to cause microbial influenced corrosion (MIC). This research was undertaken in order to determine if the metabolomic approach may be an improved way of understanding internal corrosion in water supply networks. This concept is demonstrated experimentally by subjecting household copper pipes to bacteria believed to cause MIC in a controlled study. The metabolites which resulted from the microbial corrosion activity were extracted from the body of water, separated and indentified using conventional analytical chemistry techniques. It was found by using chemometric analytical data methods that the samples could be differentiated by the metabolites that they excrete and the substrates that they consume, and hence the presence of organisms which are believed to influence corrosion could be inferred. This approach to understanding internal pipe degradation may allow water utilities to identify potential areas within water supply networks that are susceptible to internal corrosion.