Microbial water quality and diversity in hydraulic systems using tap water as a pressure medium

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Abstract
Water hydraulics uses tap water or demineralised water as a pressure medium and has fewer environmental impacts than oil-using hydraulics. The applicability is restricted by the microbial quality of the medium. The objectives of this study were to determine whether microbes grow in the pressure medium of a water hydraulic system, biofilm is formed on the surfaces and to describe the diversity of bacteria that survive and grow in water hydraulic systems. A pilot-scale water hydraulic system was used in the experiments. The viable counts in the pressure medium increased in three days from 102 to 3 ×104 cfu/ml followed by a gradual decrease towards the steady-state concentration of 6× 1034 cfu/ml. The total cell numbers decreased from 3×105 to 2 ×104 cells/ml during the three weeks of operation indicating attachment onto the system surfaces as biofilms. The biofilm cell densities on collector slide surfaces varied between 7 ×103 and 1.2 ×104 cells/cm2 after 21 days of operation. The phosphatase activity in the pressure medium was in conformity with the numbers of viable bacteria. The enzymatic activities (α- and β- glucosidase, phosphatase, aminopeptidase) varied between 0.4 and 300 nmol/lh. The diversity of bacteria growing in the system was wide and differed from that of tap water.

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