Application of GC–MS metabolic profiling to ‘blue-green water’ from microbial influenced corrosion in copper pipes

This paper presents a novel application of fluorescence spectroscopy and gas chromatography–mass spectrometry (GC–MS) to water samples exposed to copper piping which had undergone some degree of microbial influenced corrosion. Using 3D fluorescence spectroscopy we were able to observe the ‘protein-like’ fluorophore associated with presence of bacteria, and cross reference this with derivatized fatty acid metabolites determined via GC–MS analyses of the same sample. This methodology can be used as a simple screening tool to establish the presence or otherwise of microbial processes in waters, and correlation of specific metabolite profiles with different microbes will further enhance the utility of this tool.