• Journal of Microbiology and Biotechnology
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• v.23 no.1
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• pp.106-117
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• 2013

Microbial enhanced oil recovery (MEOR) is one of the most economical and efficient methods for extending the life of production wells in a declining reservoir. Microbial consortia from Wafra oil wells and Suwaihat production water, Al-Wusta region, Oman were screened. Microbial consortia in brine samples were identified using denaturing gradient gel electrophoresis and 16S rRNA gene sequences. The detected microbial consortia of Wafra oil wells were completely different from microbial consortia of Suwaihat formation water. A total of 33 genera and 58 species were identified in Wafra oil wells and Suwaihat production water. All of the identified microbial genera were first reported in Oman, with Caminicella sporogenes for the first time reported from oil fields. Most of the identified microorganisms were found to be anaerobic, thermophilic, and halophilic, and produced biogases, biosolvants, and biosurfactants as by-products, which may be good candidates for MEOR.

• Journal of Microbiology and Biotechnology
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• v.19 no.10
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• pp.1230-1237
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• 2009

The selective plugging strategy of Microbial Enhanced Oil Recovery (MEOR) involves the use of microbes that grow and produce exopolymeric substances, which block the high permeability zones of an oil reservoir, thus allowing the water to flow through the low permeability zones leading to increase in oil recovery. Bacillus licheniformis TT33, a hot water spring isolate, is facultatively anaerobic, halotolerant, and thermotolerant. It produces EPS as well as biosurfactant and has a biofilm-forming ability. The viscosity of its cell-free supernatant is $120\;mPa{\cdot}s$ at $28^{\circ}C$. Its purified EPS contained 26% carbohydrate and 3% protein. Its biosurfactant reduced the surface tension of water from 72 to 34 mN/m. This strain gave $27.7{\pm}3.5%$ oil recovery in a sand pack column. Environmental scanning electron microscopy analysis showed bacterial growth and biofilm formation in the sand pack. Biochemical tests and Amplified Ribosomal DNA Restriction Analysis confirmed that the oil recovery obtained in the sand pack column was due to Bacillus licheniformis TT33.

• Journal of Microbiology and Biotechnology
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• v.25 no.6
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• pp.918-929
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• 2015

Microbial enhanced oil recovery (MEOR) is being used more widely, and the biological contributions involved in MEOR need to be identified and quantified for the improvement of field applications. Owing to the excellent interfacial activity and the wide distribution of producing strains in oil reservoirs, lipopeptides have proved to be an essential part of the complex mechanisms in MEOR. In this study, crude lipopeptides were produced by a strain isolated from an indigenous community in an oil reservoir. It was found that crude lipopeptides can effectively reduce the IFT (interfacial tension) to 10^-1~10^-2 mN/m under high salinity without forming stable emulsions, and the wettability of natural sandstone can be enhanced (Amott index, from 0.36 to 0.48). The results of core flooding experiments indicate that an additional 5.2% of original oil in place can be recovered with a 9.5% reduction of injection pressure. After the shut-in period, the wettability of the core, the reduction of injection pressure, and the oil recovery can be improved to 0.63, 16.2% and 9.6%, respectively. In the microscopic flooding experiments, the crude oil in membrane, cluster, and throat states contribute nearly 90% in total of the additional oil recovery, and the recovery of membranestate oil was significantly enhanced by 93.3% after shut in. Based on the results in macro and pore scale, the IFT reduction and the wettability alteration are considered primary contributors to oil recovery, while the latter was more dominant after one shut-in period.

• Journal of the Korean Applied Science and Technology
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• v.38 no.4
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• pp.1010-1019
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• 2021

Petroleum oil in reservoir has been acquired by primary, secondary and tertiary oil recoveries. Microbial enhanced oil recovery (MEOR) classified to tertiary oil recovery has been evaluated in two ways of in-situ and ex-situ options. In-situ MEOR injects microbes into a depleted oil reservoir and stimulates those to generate metabolites. Among metabolites, biosurfactants play an important role to make heavy residues flow. Ex-situ MEOR injects microbial metabolites instead of microbes into a reservoir to recover oil. Even though both in-situ MEOR and ex-situ MEOR are eco-friend processes, in-situ MEOR can be preferred because it is more economic. Even though MEOR have been evaluated for a long time, it is still in the state of evaluating in a pilot-scale. Among microbes, bacteria have been widely evaluated in MEOR purpose. In this paper, bacteria for MEOR were summarized and their metabolites were qualitatively evaluated.

• Journal of Microbiology and Biotechnology
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• v.28 no.1
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• pp.95-104
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• 2018

Biosurfactants or microbial surfactants are surface-active biomolecules that are produced by a variety of microorganisms. Biodegradability and low toxicity have led to the intensification of scientific studies on a wide range of industrial applications for biosurfactants in the field of environmental bioremediation as well as the petroleum industry and enhanced oil recovery. However, the major issues in biosurfactant production are high production cost and low yield. Improving the bioindustrial production processes relies on many strategies, such as the use of cheap raw materials, the optimization of medium-culture conditions, and selecting hyperproducing strains. The present work aims to obtain a mutant with higher biosurfactant production through applying mutagenesis on Bacillus subtilis SPB1 using a combination of UV irradiation and nitrous acid treatment. Following mutagenesis and screening on blood agar and subsequent formation of halos, the mutated strains were examined for emulsifying activity of their culture broth. A mutant designated B. subtilis M2 was selected as it produced biosurfactant at twice higher concentration than the parent strain. The potential of this biosurfactant for industrial uses was shown by studying its stability to environmental stresses such as pH and temperature and its applicability in the oil recovery process. It was practically stable at high temperature and at a wide range of pH, and it recovered above 90% of motor oil adsorbed to a sand sample.