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A study of the use of corrosion inhibitor on the

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of Desulfovibro vulgaris...

Conference Paper · October 2008

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 A STUDY OF THE USE OF CORROSION INHIBITOR ON THE CORROSION
MECHANISM AND THE BACTERIA GROWTH OF DESULFOVIBRO VULGARIS
USING ELECTROCHEMICAL NOISE
*Carlos A. González-Rodríguez, Francisco. J. Rodríguez-Gómez

Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, Edificio “D” Facultad de Química,

Departamento de Metalurgia. Ciudad Universitaria, C.P.04510 México D.F., México.

*
Corresponding author e-mail address: gorc74@yahoo.com

The use of corrosion inhibitors on systems related to the transport of hydrocarbon products is a
common practice in the petrochemical industry. The efficiency of this chemical reactives is
affected in many ways by a lot of variables, one of them is the presence of microorganisms. The
presence of this microorganisms can modify the metalic surface, the corrosion media, or cause
the formation of corrosion products and layers of chemical substances sticked on the same
surface. In the present work, the electrochemical parameters Localization Index (LI) and Noise
Resistance (Rn) obtained with the technique Electrochemical Noise (EN) were used to analyze
and determine the way on which the growth of the Sulphide-Reducer Bacteria (SRB)
Desulfovibro vulgaris in different nutritious mediums (Artificial seawater, posgate and
NACE)modify the efficiency corrosion inhibitors imidazoline on the surface of an AISI steel
1018. The results obtained shows that on each phase of the bacteria growth with the presence of
the corrosion inhibitors (Imidazolina), the values for the Localization Index and Noise Resistance
present significative variations. This variations define the corrosion processes like localized
corrosion, mixed corrosion and generalized corrosion, depending on the particular phase of the
bacteria growth.

Introduction

Organic and inorganic corrosion inhibitors, may prevent, control, and in some cases stop
corrosión rates from 80 to 90 % in diferent sistems, in adittion, this percentage may rise if they
are combined with other protection techniques [1,2]. This substances influence corrosion kinetics
directly. Induction, superficial convection and adsortion phenomena, are mechanisms to slow
down corrosion, because they form films that are not necessary the result of reactions with the
substrate, some of them are monomolecular, others have such a thickness that can be seen with
the bare eyes. We may know their nature, some of them are passive, others lead to enviromental
changes that produce protective precipitates, or deactivate agressive components of the sistem [3-
6]. The biocorrosion process may be detected by a combination of observations: corrosion
morphology, presence of microbial slime masses, presence of hydrogen sulphide and ferrous or
ferric hydroxide as observed in anaerobic systems [7]. This process is of considerable concern
because the sulphate-reducing activity of bacteria is thought to be responsible for >75% of the
corrosion in productive oil wells and for >50% of the failures in buried pipelines [8]. Sulphate-
reducing bacteria (SRB) are a group of anaerobic Gram-negative microorganisms that conduct
dissimilatory sulphate reduction [9]. However, active cultures can also be isolated from sites
where bacteria are exposed to O2 [10–12]. Since the SRB show considerable adaptability to
extreme conditions, they are widespread in various ordinary environments. These

1
microorganisms can coexist in naturally occurring biofilms with a wide bacterial community
including fermentative bacteria, often forming synergistic communities (consortia) that are
capable of affecting electrochemical processes through co-operative metabolism [13]. The SRB
Desulfovibrio vulgaris is a hydrogenotropic microorganism isolated from an oil field separator in
the Gulf of Mexico which had undergone biocorrosive damage, their growth takes place strictly
in anaerobic conditions, in an alcaline culture medium, optime growth pH is between 7.2 and 7.8
but we can find them from 6.5 to 8.5, and in a temperature from 20 to 40 °C, even though some
of them are considered thermofils [14,15], they need NaCl of 20% and iron as micronutrients.The
imidazoline is currently used to minimize damages caused by corrosion in the systems on wich
D.vulgaris is present. Different derivatives from imidazoline are employed as steel corrosion
inhibitors, specially at the oil industry. Recently, many studies have been undertaken to
understand how the corrosion inhibitor works using computational tools and electrochemical
techniques, and a better understanding of corrosion inhibitors and their mechanisms can now be
achieved [16–18]. Ramachandran et al. [17], Wang et al. [18], and Cruz et al. [19,20] have
published papers concerning the molecular structure of imidazoline as a corrosion inhibitor. In
these papers, authors implied some key questions regarding the structure–performance
relationships of imidazolines, the role of the hydrocarbon chain relative to the imidazoline head
group in film formation; the thickness of the imidazoline film; the stability of the imidazoline
film; and the solution composition and hydrolysis of imidazoline. Electrochemical techniques
have been used to evaluate, supervise, and understand corrosion processes. Electrochemical noise
(EN), is an electrochemical technique that has been used to study localized corrosion associated
with pitting, crevice, stress corrosion, and microbial induced corrosion. This technique measures
fluctuations in potential refered to a reference electrode, or time dependent current fluctuations
between two electrodes. This is the most important advantage in the study of (MIC) because there
is no need to externally perturbate the sistem [21].In the analisis of the results of EN, we obtain
estadistic parameters like the localization index (LI), and noise resistance (Rn) as function of
time. LI allows us to distinguish between three different mechanisms of corrosion [22-23]. When
the value is less than 0.05, we consider uniform corrosion. A value between 0.05 and 0.1
corresponds to a mechanism of mixed corrosion (uniform corrosion and localized corrosion).
Finally, a value higher than 1 suggests a clasical proces of localized corrosion [22]. Rn gives
information about corrosion rates but tell us nothing about the type of mechanism [23] The
influence of D vulgaris over the imidazolin2 efficiency was determined by EN in [24] in a low
carbon steel, generating information of corrosion mechanisms and bacterial growth.

2. Materials and Methods

2.1. Materials

AISI 1018 mild steel coupons were employed, which had a per cent composition of Mn 0.76, Ni
0.069, Al 0.005, Cr 0.0698, Cu 87 0.3122, Si 0.159, S 0.02, P 0.03 and C 0.207, the rest being Fe.
The surfaces were metallographically polished according to ASTM 89 A262 and degreased with
acetone, washed with distilled water and sterilized with ethanol before exposure to the
experimental media.

2.2. Test organisms and medium

2
D. vulgaris was previously maintained in a Posgate medium [5].Then it was conditioned in
deaerated seawater at 33 ◦C during 15 days till bacterial growth was observed.Artificial seawater
was used according to the ASTM D665-98standard. In the same way she was carried out the
curve of growth Posgate amd NACE medium.The cellular count was carried out using the
Neubauer camera adapted to a microscope.

2.3. Test probes

The steel probes used in the electrochemical tests were built by embedding three cylindrical
specimens into resin epoxy. The exposed area of each electrodewas 0.7854 cm2. These probes
had a three-electrode arrangement, two of which acted as working electrodes, and the other one
was the reference electrode. The surface preparation of the steel probeswas carried out using Nos.
240, 320, 400 and 600 sand papers. Finally, the samples were polished with a thick cloth using 1-
and 0.3-mm particle size alumina, and a soft cloth with 0.05-mm alumina. The probes were
rinsed with water, and dried off with dry air. The surface was sterilized by immersion in a
solution of 70% ethanol during 1 h, and finally dried with dry air before each test.

2.4. Growth curve

D. vulgaris growth curve and the control were plotted simultaneously for 21 days at 33°C. Two
corrosion cells were utilizedand adapted in order to control, inoculate and monitor the
experiments. 800mL of artificial seawater were added to each flask andthen sterilized in an
autoclave during 15 min at 120°C; after that the electrolytes were deaerated with UN1066
nitrogen.The sterilized test probes were introduced to the dearated systems with and without
bacteria. One of the flasks was inoculatedwith 1mL of D. vulgaris containing 12,000
bacteria/mL. The growthcurve of the D. vulgaris with the corrosion inhibito rwas carried out in
two ways: by adding the corrosion inhibitors to the system before inoculating the bacteria and by
adding the imidazoline after inoculating the bacteria.

2.5. Polarization curves

Potentiodynamic polarization curves were generated by using a Potentiostat Gill ACM

Instrument. Polarization curves were recorded from −300 to 800mV vs. corrosion potential
(Ecorr) with a sweep rate of 60 mV/min. All experiments were performed in a three electrode
electrochemical cell containing 800mL of artificial seawater at 33°C. A Pt electrode and a
saturated calomel electrode (SCE) were used as counter and reference electrodes, respectively.
Polarization studies were carried out in a flask containing various concentrations of imidazoline
(5, 20, 50, 100, and 200 ppm). Each Tafel slope was obtained by the 120mVcriteria applied to
each polarization curve.

2.6. Electrochemical noise in the presence of imidazoline and D. vulgaris

Electrochemical noise (EN) tests were performed simultaneously with the growth curve, with and
without imidazoline as that inhibitor corrosion agents, by using test probes with three nominally
identical steel electrodes exposed to the electrolyte (artificial seawater, NACE and posgate
medium) with and without bacteria, registering the spontaneous fluctuations of the potential and
current due to corrosion reactions.

3
3. Results
3.1 Metallographic analysis
A photograph of steel microstructure is shown in Fig. 1. Perlitic and ferritic phases can be
distinguished in Fig. 1, as well as small cavities (pores) that are due to the material’s production
process. The uniformity of the grain size (from 14 to 22_m) in the whole surface shows that the
steel employed was normalized.

Fig. 1. SEM micrograph of steel AISI 1018 (600×).

3.2 The growth curve

The results of the growth curves are shown in Fig. 2.

Fig 2. Growth curves of Desulfovibrio vulgaris in synthetic seawater, NACE medium and posgate

In Fig. 2, four typical phases of the growth of the D. vulgaris can be appreciated in the evaluated
means.In table1 it is shown each stage’s growth time for desulfovibrio vulgaris in different
culture mediums. Table 2 shows each stage growth rate for bacteria 1. In the LOG phase or
conditioning phase in NACE medium, the time is less than that of synthetic sea water and posgate
medium. The phase LAG of the two last mediums shows the same period of time with growth
rates of 10867 and 284 bateria per minute respectively, in contrast with NACE medium in wich
the phase prolonges to 48 hours, with a growth rate of 197531 bacteria per minute.
The steady state in posgate medium showed the smallest period of time. In the death phase in
NACE medium, the death rate reaches 116666 bacteria per minute, in addition it starts faster than
in other medias. This behavior of the growth curves of D vulgaris, is due to the nutrients in each
culture mediums, the posgate media shows the lowest growth rate as it shows the lowest amount
of nutrients compared with the NACE media, wich has nutrients like casein peptine, yeast

4
extract, and agar, organic compounds that enriches the environment hence accelerating bacterial
growth, wich is reflected in the phase LAG taht lasts 24 hours,compared with that of the other
mediums.
Table 1. Time for each stage of growth of D Vulgaris in diferent culture mediums

Table 2. Initial population, growth rate of LAG phase (bacteria/min), growth rate in death phase
(bacteria/min) of D Vulgaris in diferent culture mediums.

3.3 Polarization curves

The polarization curves are shown in Fig. 3, 4 and 5.
The electrochemical parameters of steel immersed in artificial seawater, NACE medium and
posgate a different concentrations of imidazoline are registered in Fig. 3, Fig. 4 and Fig. 5
respectively. The fitting parameters are listed in Table 3, 4 and 5, where Ecorr, Icorr, ba, bc and
eficiency IE*[(IE = ((Iblank −Iinh)/Iblank)×100] are corrosion potential, corrosion current
density, anodic Tafel slope, cathodic Tafel slope and inhibition efficiency, respectively.
Imidazoline acts as an anodic corrosion inhibitor, in artificial seawater, NACE y Posgate medium
as shown in Fig. 3, Fig 4 and Fig. 5, because when the concentration of the corrosion inhibitor
was increased, the Ecorr also increased, getting a peak at 100 and 200ppm of imidazoline.It can
be observed in Table 3, Table 4 and Table 5, that at 100 and 200ppm, the efficiency is bigger
97.0% with respect to the control; quite higher than with other imidazoline concentrations.

Fig. 3. Polarization curves for steel in artificial seawater pH 8 at different concentrations of imizazoline

5
Table 3. Fitting parameters for steel AISI 1018 in artificial seawater at pH 8 in the presence of different
concentrations of imidazoline inhibitor (control, 5ppm, 20ppm, 50ppm,100ppm and 200ppm).

Fig. 4. Polarization curves for steel in NACE medium pH 8 at different concentrations of imizazoline

Table 4. Fitting parameters for AISI 1018 steel NACE medium in the presence of different
concentrations of imidazoline (IM) as inhibitor agent (control, 5ppm, 20ppm, 50ppm, 100ppm and
200ppm).

Fig. 5. Polarization curves for steel in Posgate medium pH 8 at different concentrations of imizazoline.

6
Table 5. Fitting parameters for AISI 1018 steel Posgate medium in the presence of different
concentrations of imidazoline as inhibitor agent (control, 5ppm, 20ppm, 50ppm, 100ppm and 200ppm).

3.4. Electrochemical noise in the presence of imidazoline

In Fig. 6, the localization index (LI) is shown in the presence and absence (control) of D. vulgaris
in artificial seawater. According to Eden and Rothwell [22] and Keelly et al. [23] LI values
smaller than 0.01 are characteristic of uniform corrosion, and the control system showed values
like those in the whole test; on the other hand, in the presence of the D. vulgaris, the LI values
begun to increase as the exponential phase of the growth curve advanced, reaching values of the
localization index larger than 0.1, which indicates that the bacteria influences the process of
localized corrosion and therefore amixed corrosion settles down. It is necessary tomention that
during the maximum growth of D. vulgaris (time 390 h), LI was 0.853, being the highest value
of all, corresponding to localized corrosion. In the cellular death stage, the LI values begun to
decay at 438 h. In Fig. 7, noise resistance (Rn) is shown in the presence and absence (control test)
of D. vulgaris in artificial seawater. Rn could be assumed as similar to the polarization resistance
(Rp) considering that the electrodesweresymmetrically identical. The resistance values in the
electrochemical noise (Rn) were calculated from the standard deviation of the noise signal in the
potential divided by the standard deviation of the noise signal in the current [25]. According to
the growth curve, from 0 to 180 h (LAG phase),the noise resistance values for the control test and
the D. Vulgaris test are similar. After 180 h (beginning the LOG phase) the noise resistance
values for the D. vulgaris test increased (about 30,677_), this situation implies that the corrosion
rate decreased. This fact can be attributed to the biofilm formation caused by the SRB. In the
same situation (as shown in Fig. 6) the values for LI increased. The combination of both factors
(decrease in the corrosion rate and increase in LI) implied the presence of localized corrosion,
even the presence of high noise resistance values.In the steady phase (after 240 h) for the control
test, the noise resistance values kept the same behavior compared with its previous phases,
ranging from 2200 to 25,500_. For the D. vulgaris test, the values are higher, ranging from
38,000 to 407,700. This difference can be attributed to the heterogeneous formation of the
biofilm and corrosion products in the substrate. In the period between 306 and 350 h, a minimum
in the noise resistance values is observed. This minimum can be explained in combination with
the decrease of the localization index (shown in Fig. 6). After 306 h the localization index
decayed, which is an indicative of amore uniform corrosion process, caused by the detachment of
the very sensitive biofilm and by the corrosion products. After 350 h, the increase in the amount
of bacteria produced a new biofilm layer, increasing the noise resistance values again. Finally, in
the death phase (after 396 h) there is a decrease in the noise resistance values, caused by a lower
amount of bacteria in the electrolyte.

7
 Fig. 6. System’s localization index in the presence and absence of D. vulgaris in artificial seawater.

Fig. 7. Noise resistance of the system in the presence and absence of D. vulgaris in synthetic seawater.

The presence of D. vulgaris in a NACE médium is shown in figure 8. LI in LOG’s corrosion

phase is mixed, at the begining of LAG phase the values go up just at 90 h were localized
corrosion is stablished because the values are near 0.1. In the steady phase in 258, 312, and 366 h
there is a decrease and then an increase of the values of LI. In the phase of celular death, we can
see mixed corrosion. Talking about control, the Dv influences LI, because at the stages of
beginning and exponential growth, the values go up, as the test goes on, the control shows
localized corrosion while in the prescence of the bacteria the values go down. Electrochemical
noise for this system is shown in figure 9. About control, it ranges from, 3024 to 7700 ohms. In
the presence of the LAG phase bacteria, the values are the same as those registered in the control,
in exchange, in the steady phase, the values rise up, indicating a decrease in corrosion rates. At
252, 306, 360 and 430 h at the moment of taking the sample in order to build the growth curve,
there was a detachment of the formed biofilm that can be seen as a reduction of Rn, the increase
of this values has a similar behavior, except for that at 430 h in were there was no change.

8
 Fig. 8. System’s localization index in the presence and absence of D. vulgaris in NACE medium.

Fig. 9. Noise resistance of the system in the presence and absence of D. vulgaris in NACE medium.

LI values with and without D. Vulgaris in a Posgate medium are shown in figure 10. In the presence of the
bacteria, LOG phase localized index goes from 0.06 to 0.09, at the beginning there is mixed corrosion
(from 0 to 60 h) in the surface of the steel, afterwards LI decreases (from 0.019 to 0.056) revealing
uniform corrosion process. At the beginning of LAG phase LI rises considerably (from 0.065 to 0.35)
starts to rise but do not exceeds 0.07 until LAG phase has started, here, LI goes from 0.1 to 0.38, and
keeps between 0.12 and 0.462 in both the steady phase and death phase of Dv. About control, LI values
start to go down with a similar behavior of the conditioning phase of D. Vulgaris. LI during test, ranges
from 0.013 to 0.09 indicating mixed corrosion. Resistance noise for this system is shown in figureLI. In
the growth’s curve LOG phase of bacteria, and control phase, the behavior is very similar between 3x103
and 6x103. It is worth saying taht the values of Rn during all test’s control, keeps in this period, but not in
the prescence of the bacteria, due to an increase in noise resistance in the exponential phase as bacterial
numbers goes up. At the cell’s death phase, the values of Rn start to decrease.

9
 Fig. 10. System’s localization index in the presence and absence of D. vulgaris in Pogate medium.

Fig. 11. Noise resistance of the system in the presence and absence of D. vulgaris in Posgate medium.

In table 6 we can see how the presence of D vulgaris in the different culture mediums has a
considerable effect on LI and Rn. For the localization index, when we consider as a reference the
control of the different mediums, the effect of the presence of bacteria can be seen in the LOG’s,
steady and celular death phases, increasing the values and changing the attack type in the metallic
surface, going from mixed to localized corrosion when going from LOG to steady phases, the
same happens when changing from localized to mixed corrosion between steady and celular
death phases. With noise resistance, the bacteria makes the values to increase since the start of
the LOG phase, showing that D vulgaris lowers the corrosion rate because it forms a fiofilm that
in the NACE medium detaches causing a decrease on Rn, the same decrease can be seen in the
celular death phase, with increased rate than that in the posgate and syntethic seawater mediums.
The time for the bacteria to adapt to the medium is much larger in posgate medium than in
NACE, thanks to the hight amounts of nutrients for this two mediums, the first one has the
minimal amount necessary for bacterial growth differently for that in a NACE or seawater where
there is an excess.
The control of the values of IL and Rn reveals a mixed corrosion process, and when time of
exposure of the steel increases, both values go up, but do not show localized corrosion except for
synthetic seawater that at the end of the test shows localized corrosion.

10
 Table 6. LI and Rn values for growing stages of D. Vulgaris in different culture mediums.

The localization index generated by adding imidazoline (100 ppm) to the system in the presence
of Dv is observed in Fig. 12.The addition of imidazoline was done in two ways. In the firstone,
imidazoline was added 24 h after inoculation with SRB, and in the second way, imidazoline was
added 4 h before the inoculation Fig. 13. Noise resistance of the system in the presence and
absence of D. vulgaris in the presence of the imidazoline corrosion inhibitor in synthetic
seawater.with the bacteria. Fig. 12 also shows the respective growth curves for each test. The
values for LI and Rn obtained in the first test (Dv + Inh) are very similar to the other test (Inh
+Dv) before 24 h. This can be expected, because the amount of bacteria was insufficient as to
create a biofilm, and the inhibitor was responsible for this similar behaviour. According to the
growth curves for the BSR (in the LAG phase), this phase lasts less in the Dv + Inh test than in
the Inh +Dv one, showing that imidazoline in the presence of bacteria has a synergic effect on
bacterial growth. When the inhibitor is added before the inoculation with the BSR, the bacteria
take more time (40 h) to assimilate the inhibitor as a source of nutrients. It is also important to
indicate that in both cases (Dv + Inh and Inh + Dv), the LOG phase showed a similar growth rate,
because this rate (and the total amount of bacteria) is limited by the amount of nutrients, and the
nutrientswere all constants (artificial seawater and imidazoline were the same in both tests). The
values for the localization index (Fig. 12) in the LOG and steady phases for the Dv + Inh and Inh
+Dv tests show fluctuations ranging from 0.3 to 0.8. These values mean localized corrosion on
the metallic surface. At special points (125, 240 and 320 h) the values for the LI were close to
0.01, which means that there was a lack of biofilm as a result of this layer’s low grip. The great
amount of bacteria was responsible for the creation of new biofilms, but the low grip of these
biofilms contributed to their detachment. The noise resistance values (Fig. 13) for the Dv + Inh
and Inh +Dv tests increased during the LOG phase, according to the increase of the bacteria
amount, because in this phase the biofilm layer was created by the bacteria on the metallic
surface. On the first 100 h for the steady phase (Dv + Inh test) there were no significant changes
in the value of Rn. This means that the layer was compact. After this, the values for Rn decreased,
a fact that is attributed to losses of biofilm.

11
Fig. 12. Localization index of the D. vulgaris in the presence of the imidazoline corrosion
inhibitor in synthetic seawater.

Fig. 13. Noise resistance of the system in the presence and absence of D. vulgaris in the presence of the
imidazoline corrosion inhibitor in synthetic seawater.

Baterial growth in the NACE medium, when adding 100 ppm of imidazolina, LAG phase
decreases, LOS phase is faster, and the steady phase shows lower values of IL and Rn, compared
when we inoculate first the D vulgaris to the system as we can see in figures 14 and 15. When
LOG phase ends in both systems, the values of IL represent localized corrosion and according
with Rn values they keep increasing as bacterial growth goes up, it is worth to mention that this
systems were evaluated in a period of 340 hours, that is why we can’t see celular death phase.
When we add the inhibitor before inoculating the bacteria, it first acts in the metal surface and
then it degradates and limits bacterial growth, but if it is added after, D vulgaris growth
accelerates, imidazolina then acts as a nutritional medium. When corelating results of Rn and IL
in the NACE medim, we can establish that, for a higher bacterial growth there is a decrease of
corrosion rate, but this is localized corrosion. If we establish that corrosion rate decreases in the
presence of BSR bacterias, it doesn’t indicate a critical problem.

12
Fig. 14. Localization index of the D. vulgaris in the presence of the imidazoline corrosion
inhibitor in NACE medium.

Fig. 15. Noise resistance of the system in the presence and absence of D. vulgaris in the presence of the
imidazoline corrosion inhibitor in NACE medium.

When we use different nutritive mediums it can be seen by means of localization index
parameters, as well as electrochemical noise, the effect of the influence of bacterial growth over
imidazolina, hence it is stablished that the decrease in corrosion rates in the presence of bacteria
although it can decrease due to an increase in Rn provoqued by the detachment of a biofilm over
the metallic surface, IL indicates localized corrosion, so it is neccesary establish the relationship
between Rn and IL to generate criteria that allow to measure the agressivity of the corrosion
generated by BSR.

13
Fig. 16. Localization index of the D. vulgaris in the presence of the imidazoline corrosion
inhibitor in Posgate medium.

Fig. 17. Noise resistance of the system in the presence and absence of D. vulgaris in the presence of the
imidazoline corrosion inhibitor in Posgate medium.

14
4. Conclusions

Monitoring the growth curve of D. vulgaris with and without imidazoline by using EN reveals
localized corrosion due to bacterial presence on steel surface and to the behavior of the corrosion
inhibitor in the presence of bacteria.
The influence of D. vulgaris on the efficiency of imidazoline to minimize the effects of corrosion
on AISI 1018 low-carbon steel in artificial seawater can be predicted using electrochemical noise
technique as follows:(Set as bullet list) The localization index and the noise resistance (Rn),
obtained using EN, established the effect of the bacteria in the presence and absence of
imidazoline. LI and Rn established the nature of the corrosion process and its rate. In the first
phase of the bacteria growth (LAG) there is no effect of the bacteria on the inhibitor’s layer (Inh
+ Dv), because the bacteria are conditioning their metabolism to the source of nutrients (artificial
seawater). On the other hand, there is a significant effect of the imidazoline on the bacteria
growth (Dv + Inh), thus making their LAG phase shorter. In the LAG phase, the corrosion in both
cases is localized. In the LOG phase, LI and Rn variations can be explained by a detachment of
the biofilm. In this phase, the corrosion observed in both cases (Dv + Inh and Inh + Dv) is mixed,
due to the interaction between the bacteria and imidazoline.
When we use different nutritive mediums it can be seen by means of localization index
parameters, as well as electrochemical noise, the effect of the influence of bacterial growth over
imidazolina, hence it is stablished that the decrease in corrosion rates in the presence of bacteria
although it can decrease due to an increase in Rn provoqued by the detachment of a biofilm over
the metallic surface, IL indicates localized corrosion, so it is neccesary establish the relationship
between Rn and IL to generate criteria that allow to measure the agressivity of the corrosion
generated by SRB.

15
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