Microbial enhanced oil recovery through deep profile control using a conditional bacterial cellulose-producing strain derived from Enterobacter sp. FY-07

Abstract

Background: Heterogeneity of oil-bearing formations is one of major contributors to low oil recovery efficiency globally. Long-term water flooding will aggravate this heterogeneity by resulting in many large channels during the exploitation process. Thus, injected water quickly flows through these large channels rather than oil-bearing areas, which ultimately leads to low oil recovery. This problem can be solved by profile control using polymer plugging. However, non-deep profile control caused by premature plugging is the main challenge. Here, a conditional bacterial cellulose-producing strain, namely Enterobacter sp. FY-0701, was constructed for deep profile control to solve the problem of premature plugging. Its deep profile control and oil displacement capabilities were subsequently identified and assessed. Results: The conditional bacterial cellulose-producing strain Enterobacter sp. FY-0701 was constructed by knocking out a copy of fructose-1, 6-bisphosphatase (FBP) encoding gene in Enterobacter sp. FY-07. Scanning electron microscope observation showed this strain produced bacterial cellulose using glucose rather than glycerol as the sole carbon source. Bacterial concentration and cellulose production at different locations in core experiments indicated that the plugging position of FY-0701 was deeper than that of FY-07. Moreover, enhanced oil recovery by FY-0701 was 12.09%, being 3.86% higher than that by FY-07 in the subsequent water flooding process. Conclusions: To our knowledge, this is the first report of conditional biopolymer-producing strains used in microbial enhance oil recovery (MEOR). Our results demonstrated that the conditional bacterial cellulose-producing strain can in situ produce biopolymer far from injection wells and plugs large channels, which increased the sweep volume of injection water and enhance oil recovery. The construction of this strain provides an alternative strategy for using biopolymers in MEOR.

Reclassification of Enterobacter sp. FY-07 as Kosakonia oryzendophytica FY-07 and Its Potential to Promote Plant Growth

“…The majority of the previous studies of FY-07 focused on the analyses of its unique BC production mechanism under anaerobic conditions [ 11 , 36 ], increasing the productivity [ 12 , 15 ] and expanding the application range of BC [ 13 , 14 , 35 , 37 ]. Herein, FY-07 was reclassified into the species oryzendophytica in the genus Kosakonia through a polyphasic approach.…”

“…With the development of the taxonomy of Enterobacter , the genus Kosakonia was separated from the genus Enterobacter [ 1 ]. Thanks to its excellent BC production capacity and unique fermentation characteristics, FY-07 has been continuously researched and developed [ 11 , 12 , 13 , 14 , 15 ]. Comparative genomic analysis of a report suggested that FY-07 may be closely related to Kosakonia [ 16 ].…”

Exploiting Microbes in the Petroleum Field: Analyzing the Credibility of Microbial Enhanced Oil Recovery (MEOR)

“…The viscosity of the penetrating water is further increased using a mobility control agent to improve the oil sweep efficiency and the mobility stoichiometry by equalizing the permeability across the reservoir. The global capital market for biopolymers is anticipated to increase 17% and reach USD 10 billion by 2021 [116][117][118].…”

Rheological Properties of a New Microbial Exopolysaccharide Produced by Sphingomonas sp. HS and Its Potential in Enhanced Oil Recovery

“…In a SP binary system, polymers have a vital influence on improving the viscosity of flooding fluids, changing the direction of water flow in formations, improving the volume sweep efficiency, and reducing the adsorption of the surfactant in the reservoir rock and ultimately enhancing oil recovery. − Generally, synthesized polymers such as partially hydrolyzed polyacrylamide (HPAM) have been widely applied in commercial EOR projects benefiting from their good performances and low cost . Compared with synthetic polymers, the biopolymers produced by microorganisms inherit the characteristics of biocompatibility and biodegradation, making them capture much attention in the application of petroleum engineering .…”