Microbial Enhanced Oil Recovery Field Pilot in a Waterflooded Reservoir

Yonebayashi, H.; Ono, K.; Enomoto, H.; Chida, T.; Hong, C-X.; Fujiwara, K.

doi:10.2523/38070-ms

Cited by 10 publications

(3 citation statements)

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“…Nutrient-stimulated microbial growth produced a 33% drop in the effective permeability in an injection well at North Burbank Unit in Oklahoma, plugging off high-perme- (287). In contrast to the poor experience with exogenous organisms for bioremediation (bioaugmentation), injection of selected microbial species into oil field plots in Japan and China resulted in improved oil recoveries of 15 to 23% (248,680). In one case microbial treatment caused some degradation of long-chain aliphatic hydrocarbon chains but with no apparent degradation of aromatic ring structures.…”

Section: Microbial Processes For Recovering and Upgrading Petroleum Mmentioning

confidence: 99%

Recent Advances in Petroleum Microbiology

Hamme¹,

Singh

Ward

2003

Microbiol Mol Biol Rev

1,201

640

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Recent advances in molecular biology have extended our understanding of the metabolic processes related to microbial transformation of petroleum hydrocarbons. The physiological responses of microorganisms to the presence of hydrocarbons, including cell surface alterations and adaptive mechanisms for uptake and efflux of these substrates, have been characterized. New molecular techniques have enhanced our ability to investigate the dynamics of microbial communities in petroleum-impacted ecosystems. By establishing conditions which maximize rates and extents of microbial growth, hydrocarbon access, and transformation, highly accelerated and bioreactor-based petroleum waste degradation processes have been implemented. Biofilters capable of removing and biodegrading volatile petroleum contaminants in air streams with short substrate-microbe contact times (<60 s) are being used effectively. Microbes are being injected into partially spent petroleum reservoirs to enhance oil recovery. However, these microbial processes have not exhibited consistent and effective performance, primarily because of our inability to control conditions in the subsurface environment. Microbes may be exploited to break stable oilfield emulsions to produce pipeline quality oil. There is interest in replacing physical oil desulfurization processes with biodesulfurization methods through promotion of selective sulfur removal without degradation of associated carbon moieties. However, since microbes require an environment containing some water, a two-phase oil-water system must be established to optimize contact between the microbes and the hydrocarbon, and such an emulsion is not easily created with viscous crude oil. This challenge may be circumvented by application of the technology to more refined gasoline and diesel substrates, where aqueous-hydrocarbon emulsions are more easily generated. Molecular approaches are being used to broaden the substrate specificity and increase the rates and extents of desulfurization. Bacterial processes are being commercialized for removal of H2S and sulfoxides from petrochemical waste streams. Microbes also have potential for use in removal of nitrogen from crude oil leading to reduced nitric oxide emissions provided that technical problems similar to those experienced in biodesulfurization can be solved. Enzymes are being exploited to produce added-value products from petroleum substrates, and bacterial biosensors are being used to analyze petroleum-contaminated environments

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Section: Microbial Processes For Recovering and Upgrading Petroleum Mmentioning

confidence: 99%

Recent Advances in Petroleum Microbiology

Hamme¹,

Singh

Ward

2003

Microbiol Mol Biol Rev

1,201

640

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

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“…Other investigators, however, have concluded that viable microorganisms can penetrate porous media, produce chemicals and gases and preferentially plug high permeability zones, which improve oil recovery significantly. Chisholm et al, Yonebayashi et al, Myers & Samiroden, Jenneman et al, Torbati et al, Jack et al, Bryan & Douglas, and Raiders et al [5][6][7][8][9][10][11][12][13] studied the effects of viable microbial in the porous media. Coa et al presented an extensive review of microbial EOR [14,15].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Relative Flow of Bacteria and Oil in Porous Media

Zekri¹,

Gannam²,

Nasr³

et al. 2017

MESE

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The relative permeability of porous media has been shown by a number of investigators to play a big factor in determining the recoveries resulting from both water floods and tertiary floods. Solutions of bacilli strains of bacteria in water, Bacterial Enhanced Oil Recovery (BEOR) have previously been shown to be effective in improving oil recoveries from Carbonates using laboratory core-flooding experiments. One of the mechanisms indicated was a change in rock relative permeability due to changes in wettability of the flooded system from oil-wet to more water-wet conditions. The causes of these changes are the interaction of bacteria with crude oil in situ producing gases, surfactants, other chemicals like acids and mild organic polymers. This wettability alteration increases the oil relative permeability, decreases the water relative permeability, and reduces the residual oil saturation (ROS). These factors and others, in turn, result in an improvement in the bacterial flood recovery over recoveries obtained by water flooding alone. The objectives of this work are to describe and quantify the relative permeability alteration occurring in BEOR processes and the study the factors that would enhance such alteration and improve oil recovery.

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“…It is estimated by DOE that 46 percent of the US domestic reservoirs with original oil in place that exceeds 20 billion barrels could be candidates for MEOR. Several studies have had promising results, with bio-systems in MEOR laboratory tests recovering typically of 10 -20% of water flood incremental oil (Yonebayashi, 1997).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Bio-Engineering High Performance Microbial Strains for MEOR

Fang¹,

Wang²,

Shuler³

2007

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The main objectives of this three-year research project are: 1) to employ the latest advances in genetics and bioengineering, especially Directed Protein Evolution technology, to improve the effectiveness of the microbial enhanced oil recovery (MEOR) process. 2) to improve the surfactant activity and the thermal stability of bio-surfactant systems for MEOR; and 3) to develop improved laboratory methods and tools that screen quickly candidate bio-systems for EOR.Biosurfactants have been receiving increasing attention as Enhanced Oil Recovery (EOR) agents because of their unique properties (i.e., mild production conditions, lower toxicity, and higher biodegradability) compared to their synthetic chemical counterparts. Rhamnolipid as a potent natural biosurfactant has a wide range of potential applications, including EOR and bioremediation.During the three-year of the project period, we have successfully cloned the genes involved in the rhamnolipid bio-synthesis. And by using the Transposon containing Rhamnosyltransferase gene rhlAB, we engineered the new mutant strains P. aeruginosa PEER02 and E. coli TnERAB so they can produce rhamnolipid biosurfactans. We were able to produce rhamnolipds in both P. aeroginosa PAO1-RhlA -strain and P. fluorescens ATCC15453 strain, with the increase of 55 to 175 fold in rhamnolipid production comparing with wild type bacteria strain. We have also completed the first round direct evolution studies using Error-prone PCR technique and have constructed the library of RhlAB-containing Transposon to express mutant gene in heterologous hosts. Several methods, such as colorimetric agar plate assay, colorimetric spectrophotometer assay, bioactive assay and oil spreading assay have been established to detect and screen rhamnolipid production.Our engineered P. aeruginosa PEER02 strain can produce rhamnolipids with different carbon sources as substrate. Interfacial tension analysis (IFT) showed that different rhamnolipids from different substrates gave different performance. Those rhamnolipids with plant oil as substrateshowed as low an IFT as 0.05mN/m in the buffer solution with pH5.0 and 2% NaCl. Core flooding tests showed that rhamnolipids produced by our engineered bacteria are effective agents for EOR.At 250ppm rhamnolipid concentration from P. aeruginosa PEER02, 42% of the remaining oil after waterflood was recovered. These results were therefore significant towards considering the exploration of the studied rhamnolipids as EOR agents.2

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Microbial Enhanced Oil Recovery Field Pilot in a Waterflooded Reservoir

Cited by 10 publications

References 0 publications

Recent Advances in Petroleum Microbiology

Recent Advances in Petroleum Microbiology

Relative Flow of Bacteria and Oil in Porous Media

Bio-Engineering High Performance Microbial Strains for MEOR

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