In 2016, a $7.8 million collaborative research project involving four universities in Alberta and Atlantic Canada was launched with the aim of filling in some of our knowledge gaps about MIC. Managing Microbial Corrosion in Canadian Offshore and Onshore Oil Production (“geno-Mic” for short) uses genomics to better predict how, where and why MIC occurs and how to mitigate it. Ultimately, a better understanding of MIC could improve infrastructure integrity, reduce the potential of oil spills, and improve worker safety – potentially reducing operating costs and saving Canada’s oil and gas industry $300-500 million over 10 to 20 years.
The project is funded by the federal government under Genome Canada’s Large-Scale Applied Research Project Competition (LSARP) with additional support from multiple university and industry partners, and is co-managed by Genome Alberta and Genome Atlantic.
Digging into MIC: an interview with Dr. Lisa Gieg
November 2019
Dr. Lisa Gieg, University of Calgary, is a co-lead on the project. Genome Atlantic interviewed Dr. Gieg on how and why her research team is trying to get to the bottom of microbial corrosion.
A:MIC is one of the several ways by which corrosion of materials can occur – and one of the challenges with understanding and diagnosing MIC is that it is not an isolated mechanism. That is, while microorganisms play a key role in the corrosion, their metabolism is affected by the chemical environment surrounding them (e.g., kinds of carbon, such as fatty acids or hydrocarbon; or electron acceptors, like oxygen, nitrate, or sulfate, pH) and the surrounding physical conditions, such as temperature and pressure. MIC is very complicated because many factors can affect whether microorganisms will thrive and metabolize in such a way that leads to corrosion. Thus, it’s difficult to pinpoint that corrosion is solely due to the action of microorganisms. Put another way, microorganisms are everywhere, but whether their activity leads to corrosion can be difficult to sort out because of other corrosion that may occur due to the chemical and physical environment.
Genome Atlantic gratefully acknowledges the financial support of the Government of Canada through Genome Canada, as well as the Atlantic Canada Opportunities Agency and the provincial governments of Newfoundland and Labrador, Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, and Prince Edward Island.
Genome Atlantic is one of 7 Genome Centres in Canada that are part of the Genome Canada Enterprise. This network encourages collaboration, with each centre focusing on the needs of their respective regions.
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BRING US AND IDEA AND WE’LL HELP YOU GET IT INTO ACTION.
