Optimization and characterization of biosurfactant produced by indigenous Brevibacillus borstelensis isolated from a low permeability reservoir for application in MEOR

Biosurfactants are expected to be a key factor for microbial enhanced oil recovery (MEOR).

Microbial Lipopeptide-Producing Strains and Their Metabolic Roles under Anaerobic Conditions

The lipopeptide produced by microorganisms is one of the representative biosurfactants and is characterized as a series of structural analogues of different families. Thirty-four families covering about 300 lipopeptide compounds have been reported in the last decades, and most of the reported lipopeptides produced by microorganisms were under aerobic conditions. The lipopeptide-producing strains under anaerobic conditions have attracted much attention from both the academic and industrial communities, due to the needs and the challenge of their applications in anaerobic environments, such as in oil reservoirs and in microbial enhanced oil recovery (MEOR). In this review, the fifty-eight reported bacterial strains, mostly isolated from oil reservoirs and dominated by the species Bacillus subtilis, producing lipopeptide biosurfactants, and the species Pseudomonas aeruginosa, producing glycolipid biosurfactants under anaerobic conditions were summarized. The metabolic pathway and the non-ribosomal peptide synthetases (NRPSs) of the strain Bacillus subtilis under anaerobic conditions were analyzed, which is expected to better understand the key mechanisms of the growth and production of lipopeptide biosurfactants of such kind of bacteria under anaerobic conditions, and to expand the industrial application of anaerobic biosurfactant-producing bacteria.

Self-gasified biosystems for enhanced oil recovery

Microbial enhanced oil recovery is considered to be one of the most promising methods of stimulating formation, contributing to a higher level of oil production from long-term fields. The injection of bioreagents into a reservoir results in the creation of oil-displacing agents along with a significant amount of gases, mainly carbon dioxide. Earlier, the authors failed to study the preparation of self-gasified biosystems and the implementation of the subcritical region (SR) under reservoir conditions. Gasified systems in the subcritical phase have better oil-displacing properties than nongasified systems. In a heterogeneous porous medium, the filtration profile of gasified liquids in the SR should be more uniform than for a degassed liquid. Based on experimental studies, the superior efficiency of oil displacement by gasified biosystems compared with degassed ones has been demonstrated. The possibility of efficient use of gasified hybrid biopolymer systems has been shown.

APLIKASI BIOSURFAKTAN Bacillus subtilis ATCC 19659 DENGAN MEDIA PRODUKSI LIMBAH TAHU UNTUK ENHACED OIL RECOVERY

Biosurfactant as secondary metabolit produced by Bacillus subtilis. It has the ability to emulsify and reduce the surface tension. Biosurfactants produced by B. subtilis is a lipopeptide. Furthermore, biosurfactant can be utilized in microbial enhanced oil recovery (MEOR). In this research, biosurfactant of B. subtilis ATCC 19 659 were evaluated. The production use Nutrient Broth (NB) and soybean liquid waste. Application of biosurfactant in oil recovery showed that biosurfactant of NB recover 2 mL crude oil and biosurfactant of soybean liquid waste medium recover 3.67 mL.

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

Crude oil is a major energy source that is exploited globally to achieve economic growth. To meet the growing demands for oil, in an environment of stringent environmental regulations and economic and technical pressure, industries have been required to develop novel oil salvaging techniques. The remaining ~70% of the world’s conventional oil (one-third of the available total petroleum) is trapped in depleted and marginal reservoirs, and could thus be potentially recovered and used. The only means of extracting this oil is via microbial enhanced oil recovery (MEOR). This tertiary oil recovery method employs indigenous microorganisms and their metabolic products to enhance oil mobilization. Although a significant amount of research has been undertaken on MEOR, the absence of convincing evidence has contributed to the petroleum industry’s low interest, as evidenced by the issuance of 400+ patents on MEOR that have not been accepted by this sector. The majority of the world’s MEOR field trials are briefly described in this review. However, the presented research fails to provide valid verification that the microbial system has the potential to address the identified constraints. Rather than promising certainty, MEOR will persist as an unverified concept unless further research and investigations are carried out.