Microbial influenced accelerated low water corrosion (ALWC): species isolation and identification / Nur Nadila Mohd Shaufe Aminuddin

Accelerated Low-Water Corrosion (ALWC) leads to degradation of maritime steel structure. This study is performed to isolate, identification, and study the growth of the microbes that induced ALWC. The sample of corrosion was taken from the jetty in Port Klang, Selangor, Malaysia. The rust collected was spread on agar containing artificial sea water medium. After 72 hours, five types of colonies grew around the rusts. The colonies were then cultured in five different petri dish containing artificial sea water medium and were left for 72 hours at temperature 27⁰C. The pure colonies were then gram stained and it is found that the creamy, creamy white and yellow colonies were gram negative bacteria meanwhile the dark pink and light pink colonies were gram positive bacteria. The gram negative and positive bacteria were then tested with API Kit to identify their species. It was found that the yellow, creamy, creamy white, dark pink, and light pink are Pseudomonas aeruginosa, Ochrobactrum anthropic, Pseudomonas luteola, Sphingomonas paucimobilis, and Burkholderia cepacia respectively. It was found that the Pseudomonas aeruginosa has the shortest life span meanwhile the longest life span is Sphingomonas paucimobilis, Burkolderia cepacia, and Pseudomonas luteola.