Enhanced biosurfactant production by a Bacillus licheniformis mutant

Study Onmicrobial Diversity of Biosurfactant Producing Bacteria From Contaminated Enviromental Samples.

“…The plate were incubated at 30 o C for 48 h. The ability of biosurfactant producers to form clear halos in methylene blue agar plate shows the presence of biosurfactant production (Siegmund and Wagner, 1991;Lin et al, 1998).…”

“…Drops of supernatant of biosurfactant producing colonies collapsed on oil coated surface (Lin, et al, 1998;Youssef et al, 2004).…”

Development of Microorganisms with Improved Transport and Biosurfactant Activity for Enhanced Oil Recovery

“…mojavensis strain JF-2 produces a salt-tolerant, heat-stable, lipopeptide surfactant that reduces interfacial tension of oil brine mixtures to less than 0.01 mN/m (17,19,24,25). Interfacial tensions as low as 0.006 mN/m have been observed with as little as 10 to 25 mg/l of the lipopeptide in the absence of a cosurfactant.…”

“…Thus, this organism is able to grow and produce its biosurfactant under the conditions found in many reservoirs in the United States, making it an ideal candidate for MEOR. Other Bacillus strains also make effective biosurfactants (1,21,24,25). Oil is recovered when strain JF-2 is grown in sandstone cores (18,22).…”

“…These large reductions in interfacial tension should result in substantial recovery of residual oil. Residual oil is recovered by the in situ biosurfactant production, but oil recoveries were low probably due to the inconsistent production of the biosurfactant in the core due to nutrient limitations (2,18,21,22,24,25) The inconsistent performance of MEOR has led to criticisms whether sufficient quantities of microbial products can be produced in the reservoir at a rate sufficient to result in economic oil recovery (7).…”