Monitoring of biofilms is particularly important when water treatment is the primary approach to prevention of micro-organism settlement, biological scale accumulation and MIC. To monitor the activity of these sessile organisms an electrochemical biofilm activity monitoring system has been developed to monitor biofilm activity on-line and in real time. It has been shown to be effective for predicting biofilm activity on-line and as a continuous measure of biocide effectiveness. Because of the fact that the growth of micro-organisms is stimulated on this probe, the system provides an ‘early warning’ so that immediate action for preventing biofilm formation in the seawater system can be made when treatment proves not efficient.
It provides the system engineer, water chemist, or maintenance specialist with a powerful tool for planning inspections, for scheduling on-line or off-line cleaning, or for adjusting the timing and dosage of water treatment, and most importantly avoiding biological scale accumulation.
