Microbially Influenced Corrosion and its Control Measures: A Critical Review

Corrosion of materials, induced either by chemicals, or environmental factors or microbials is always a threat to industries. If remain unattended, it will have direct influence on environmental pollution. In recent years lot of work is reported on microbially influenced corrosion which is more prevalent in biotechnology and chemical engineering process industries. However, reports for preventive measures which are taken to mitigate microbially induced corrosion are highly limited. This review is an attempt to consolidate and make a systematic, up to date report on various control techniques that could be implemented to overcome microbially influenced corrosion. The review report opens up by highlighting the causes and concerns related to microbially influenced corrosion, and explains in detail mechanistic aspects of it. It provides in-depth view on attenuating microbially influenced corrosion by using synthetic compounds, green inhibitors, surface modifications, biofilm formation, and nano-particles. The review critically discusses the corrosion inhibition mechanism with merits and limitations of each microbially influenced corrosion inhibitors.