Pierangela Cristiani* Libro: Techniques for corrosin monitoring Southwest Research Institute, Texas, USA – Cambridge U.K., 29 Febbraio 2008 * CESI RICERCA The microrganisms attachment on wetted supports leads to the development of a biofilm that results in the negative deterioration and corrosion of materials, decaying the performance of equipments and process waters. MIC risk mitigation most time coincide to biofilm risk mitigation. Biofilm also causes other deleterious effects, reducing the heat transfer and promoting the biological risk in the industrial facilities, as consequence, the biofilm control permits to avoid several issues, not only MIC. The existing procedures of MIC risk prevention often require the use of biocide treatments, such as chlorination, but standard treatment procedures, field experiences and macro-analysis of the phenomena are insufficient to build an effective and exhaustive risk assessment. A valid help, often decisive, come from simple, rugged and innovative electrochemical sensors, able to monitor on-line and in real time the first stage of biofilm growth. This electrochemical probe, applied alone or integrated with few others traditional sensors and devices, could allow the direct evaluation of MIC risk in several field application. Industrial and commercial version of electrochemical MIC risk monitoring have been already successfully used in several plants, to optimise the chemical treatments of cooling water circuits.