Fundamental Studies on Biomachining of Carbon Steel by Iron Oxidizing Bacteria(Materials, Metallurgy & Weldability, INTERNATIONAL SYMPOSIUM OF JWRI 30TH ANNIVERSARY)

Bacteria living in natural environments usually attack metals leaving unacceptable corrosion and causing critical deterioration. This negative phenomena is studied in this paper in a positive sense by means of control of these bacteria for the purpose of biomachining of metals. The main objective of this research is the achievement of a low cost machining process at normal temperature with less energy involvement and more involvement of bacteria in biomachining without straining them. The main focus in this paper is on the effect of Thiobacillus ferrooxidans, iron oxidizing bacteria and their ability to oxidize iron. It has been found that the extent of corrosion of carbon steel in the presence of Thiobacillus ferrooxidans was remarkably large. A tendency towards preferential corrosion of ferrite was also observed. The results of our experiments show that biomachining using Thiobacillus ferrooxidans is possible by controlling the structure of steel.