Performance of Biosurfactant Produced From Pineapple Waste for Improving Oil Recovery

Abstract

Synthetic chemical surfactants have been found to be usually toxic and hardly degraded by microorganisms. Hence, attention had been shown towards biosurfactants due to their biocompatibility, lower toxicity, higher stability, stability to extreme temperature and pH. This study evaluated biosurfactant produced from pineapple waste for enhanced oil recovery using hydrocarbon utilizing bacteria from heavy oil contaminated soil. The main biosurfactant producing bacteria isolates obtained were Bacillus sp. 73S, Bacillus sp 73M, Bacillus sp 69B, Pseudomonas sp. S3 and Pseudomonas sp S9. Routine core analyses and capillary pressure measurements were determined for core samples retrieved from the Niger-Delta sandstones. Oil recovery efficiency was measured from surface tension and surfactant adsorption