Coatings & Corrosion Control (Continued from page 48) microorganisms found in barge voids when tested by various independent lab- oratories.
Late in 2001. a three year-old. 300-ft. (91.4-m) fuel oil transport barge was suspected by the barge owner/operator of having bacterial corrosion and had its steel voids inspected by qualified per- sonnel for MIC. The voids had been coated with a 2-ml layer of the Jotun beeswax by the barge fabricator during construction. The void inspection found the wax coating well bonded, mostly intact and performing well with many of the barge voids holding stagnant water, as well as. organic and corrosion deposits. Void bottom samples were collected in the barge at several areas, where the wax coating was damaged and where active corrosion pitting resem- bling that of MIC was identified.
Samples originated from the void space at the following locations: 1) Bay #2 forward port. 2) Port #3 midships, and 3) #7 starboard forward ladder bay.
Texas for culturing and further beeswax coating-related investigations. Several other beeswax-coated barges suspected to have suffered MIC and contracted by the same owner/operator had voids inspected in the same time period.
Stagnant water was standing in many of the barge voids. General corrosion was observed and documented at wax-dam- aged areas. Visual, biological and chemical tests of suspected areas revealed MIC was not occurring in these barges.
Jotun coating's distributor was sent to the Texas laboratory for bacterial con- tamination and growth-inducing studies.
Control tests of the virgin beeswax coat- ing did not contain any viable microbes.
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