The term biofouling or biofilm refers to a phenomenon which may occur if water contains organic impurities. Certain bacteria may also enter the pipe system. Once they are in the pipe system, these bacteria multiply in the water, coat the pipe walls with a greenish or brownish film and sometimes cause major corrosion damage. Such phenomena may also lead to pipe blockage. Biofouling is virtually unknown in the domestic sector but occurs time and time again in industrial installations. Coping with this problem using classical methods, such or heat or acid, is very difficult and very expensive. One of the main problems encountered in classical rehabilitation is ensuring that all areas of the pipe network really are flushed. This is frequently virtually impossible owing to the complexity of many pipe systems. If rehabilitation does not kill off all microorganisms, the biofilm will build up again. During the course of several test runs in the laboratory, Merus, using specifically developed equipment, was able to determine that biofouling was able to be reduced or stopped entirely. Today Merus has numerous applications, where the biofilm is brought back to a minimum and cant cause any problems, or is even gone totally. Even without using chemical additives to prevent the bio activities in the water, the achieve results are very satisfying and stable. Some of these projects delivering excellent results since more than 5 years. In order to get control of the biofilm or biofouling, Merus has to take care about the entire system. If for instance at only one pipe in a complex system Merus is installed, the Merus Rings are only able to lower the biofilm. As can be seen at the picture above. The picture shows a length cut pipe, where the ring was installed in the middle of this pipe. It can be clearly seen, to the left or upstream the point of installation, there are far more white spots of Biofilm, as downstream the point of installations. The whole biofilm isnt gone, because there are untreated parts in the system, where the biofilm can grow undisturbed. So if the feed water is contaminated Merus can only lessen the problem. In order to get control over the water as a whole, the entire system including the feed water has to be treated. The fact that Merus works even in stagnant or standing water and that the oscillations are propagated in the water would be a very major advantage in such cases since even dead legs1 are affected by the oscillations and even the biofilm at these points is influenced.
1 The term "dead legs" means parts of a pipe through which the medium does not flow, e.g. a stub line leading to a valve which is opened rarely or never.
The term biofouling or biofilm refers to a phenomenon which may occur if water contains organic impurities. Certain bacteria may also enter the pipe system. Once they are in the pipe system, these bacteria multiply in the water, coat the pipe walls with a greenish or brownish film and sometimes cause major corrosion damage. Such phenomena may also lead to pipe blockage. Biofouling is virtually unknown in the domestic sector but occurs time and time again in industrial installations. Coping with this problem using classical methods, such or heat or acid, is very difficult and very expensive. One of the main problems encountered in classical rehabilitation is ensuring that all areas of the pipe network really are flushed. This is frequently virtually impossible owing to the complexity of many pipe systems. If rehabilitation does not kill off all microorganisms, the biofilm will build up again.