Assessing biofilm formation from marine organisms

Abstract

Microbial biofilms are one of the most abundant biofouling occurring in seawater. The most suitable places for the formation of these biofilms are the pontoons, sonar devices, buoys, offshore structures, platforms, oil installations, underwater acoustic instruments, marinas, seawater cooling systems and underwater cables. The issues that are related to the formation of these biofilms can be environmental concerns, increase in the operational costs, corrosion and safety hazards. Also, they have negative effects on the speed of naval and commercial ships thus causing increase in fuel costs. The purpose of this project was to assess the sequential development of biofilm using natural seawater to develop better ways of controlling biofilm formation