Modeling of Heavy Nitrate Corrosion in Anaerobe Aquifer Injection Water Biofilm: A Case Study in a Flow Rig

Heavy carbon steel corrosion developed during nitrate mitigation of a flow rig connected to a water injection pipeline flowing anaerobe saline aquifer water. Genera-specific QPCR primers quantified 74% of the microbial biofilm community, and further 87% of the community of the nonamended parallel rig. The nonamended biofilm hosted 6.3 × 10(6) SRB cells/cm(2) and the S(35)-sulfate-reduction rate was 1.1 μmol SO4(2-)/cm(2)/day, being congruent with the estimated SRB biomass formation and the sulfate areal flux. Nitrate amendment caused an 18-fold smaller SRB population, but up to 44 times higher sulfate reduction rates. This H2S formation was insufficient to form the observed Fe3S4 layer. Additional H2S was provided by microbial disproportionation of sulfur, also explaining the increased accessibility of sulfate. The reduced nitrate specie nitrite inhibited the dominating H2-scavenging Desulfovibrio population, and sustained the formation of polysulfide and Fe3S4, herby also dissolved sulfur. This terminated the availability of acetate in the inner biofilm and caused cell starvation that initiated growth upon metallic electrons, probably by the sulfur-reducing Desulfuromonas population. On the basis of these observations we propose a model of heavy nitrate corrosion where three microbiological processes of nitrate reduction, disproportionation of sulfur, and metallic electron growth are nicely woven into each other.