Iron/Sulphide Ratios in Corrosion by Sulphate-reducing Bacteria

Abstract

THE stimulation of iron corrosion under anaerobic conditions by Vibrio desulfuricans is well known, and the organism has recently been shown¹ to be a facultative autotroph. Several laboratory investigations of this type of corrosion have been described^2–4. But, to our knowledge, there has, as yet, been no published comparison of the corrosion under heterotrophic and under autotrophic conditions. We have felt that such a comparison should throw further light on the mechanism of this type of corrosion and on the explanation first proposed by von Wolzogen Kuhr². This worker considered that the stimulation of corrosion was due to the utilization by the bacteria of cathodically produced hydrogen, by which the corrosion reaction would otherwise be polarized.