Summary
Bacteria suspended in cooling and process water do not stay suspended. They colonize wetted surfaces and, over remarkably short periods, organize into biofilms — layered communities of living and dead cells bound in an extracellular polymeric matrix. The consequences surface first as degraded heat transfer in condensers and heat exchangers, then as impeded flow, and eventually as microbiologically influenced corrosion (MIC): a localized attack that develops precisely where biofilm takes hold and that has driven through-wall failures across the power generation, refining, pipeline, and chemical process industries. Most treatment programs answer this risk by dosing biocide on a schedule and confirming the result by measuring residual chemical concentration — a measure of what was added to the water, not of whether the film on the metal is actually gone.
The BG5 Biofilm Growth Detector closes that gap. Built by Structural Integrity Associates (SIA) as the next generation of the BIoGEORGE™ detector platform, BG5 applies electrochemical measurement across probe electrodes installed directly in the flowing system, reporting biofilm activity online and in real time. Operators stop inferring effectiveness from chemical concentration and instead watch growth respond — or fail to respond — to each application. Treatment becomes sufficient but not excessive: enough biocide to prevent microbiological growth, without the cost, corrosion penalty, and environmental burden of routine over-dosing.
Data reaches the people who need it through BGConnect PC software and the BGMobile phone and tablet app, which deliver real-time and historical data sets, customizable graphs, and shareable reports that make treatment-program effectiveness legible to chemistry and engineering staff alike. Select BG5 models extend that access remotely over wired, wireless, or cellular networks, so a site can trend biofilm activity across multiple assets without sending a technician to each panel.
BG5 is supported by the specialists behind SI’s Operational Support Services organization, where biofilm monitoring sits within the equipment and plant monitoring practice alongside chemical injection skids, sample panels, and telemetry. SI’s nuclear chemistry consultants pair the instrument with independent open and closed cooling water assessments, chemical selection and timing recommendations, and program change management. When fouling has already progressed to material damage, SIA’s Materials Science Center provides deposit analysis, elemental mapping, and root-cause failure analysis to confirm the mechanism before repairs are specified. Contact SIA to evaluate BG5 for your cooling or process water system.