Biocorrosion research: Are we barking up the right trees?

Microbially influenced corrosion (MIC), is acknowledged to be the direct cause of catastrophic corrosion failures, with damages ranging to many billions of US$. In spite of extensive research and numerous publications, fundamental questions still remain unanswered. In 1993, J.F.D. Stott published a review paper in Corrosion Science, entitled “What progress in the understanding of microbially influenced corrosion has been made in the last 25 years?“ He concluded, “The most commonly asked question about MIC is: what will be the expected corrosion rate of material x in an environment where aggressive microorganisms proliferate?... For many materials we can no more answer this question now than we could 25 years ago.” Now, over 50 years later, that question is still open. Current MIC research does not provide data related to detection and verification in the field, diagnosing, modelling or prediction. Laboratory experiments seldom attempt to recreate relevant natural or industrial electrolytes. A sober, solution-oriented contemplation of the state-of-art and acknowledgement of the substantial deficiencies in our understanding may help shift MIC research into a direction which could actually produce useful answers.