Simply put, Microbiologically Influenced Corrosion (MIC) is a type of corrosion that is specifically harmful to most engineering materials. It is caused by the presence and activities of microorganisms.
While microorganisms may have a negative connotation to them because of the corrosion they cause to nearly every material, they are just doing their job of growing, breaking down matter and keeping the earth clean. However, it’s this very process that causes us to need to battle against corrosion as we do. Many industries are affected by the impacts of MIC, including chemical processing, water treatment, highway maintenance, aviation, marine and shipping industries and more.
Here are three reasons why investing in MIC prevention is worth your while:
It’s difficult to tell between the two types of corrosion
Many testing kits that exist today don’t allow the user to differentiate between MIC and other types of corrosion. In fact, the presence of microorganisms alone does not necessarily mean there is microbial corrosion. Microbial corrosion is difficult to detect, as it does not produce visually unique corrosion morphology.
Misdiagnosed MIC can result in decreased asset lifetime and increased downtime, which in turn will end up costing your organization money. By having the right tools to distinguish between different types of corrosion, you’ll also be able to reduce biocide and chemical treatments in your oil and gas operations.
It will save your the industry money
The cost of corrosion has been been estimated to be $2.5 trillion annually—with more than $500 billion of this cost may be due to MIC. MIC can develop quickly, hence why prevention is so critical. Failure to adopt timely and effective mitigation strategies can lead to pipeline leaks and failures, resulting in a pricey penny to pay. The right testing can determine corrosion before it is severe that a replacement must be carried out, reducing replacement costs and catastrophic injury.
It will save you time and allow you to get back to daily operations
Detecting MIC early is critical to saving money and assets, but it also will help your company get back to its daily operations faster. The right testing kit will give you results sooner rather than later to reduce downtime. Corrolytics test kit provides near real-time results, reducing detection time by two weeks and allowing asset integrity managers and corrosion engineers to implement successful mitigation strategies and monitor and control before corrosion is so severe that a replacement is required.
Ultimately, investing in the right MIC prevention that can determine when microbial growth will lead to corrosion and be able to differentiate between biotic corrosion and other types of corrosion will save your company time, money and resources.
Learn how Corrolytics provides a faster and more accurate MIC testing process.