The world continues to rely heavily on petroleum as a primary energy source. However, a great fraction of the oil-in-place remains inaccessible to traditional recovery means. This review presents an update on the use of biotechnology to improve residual crude oil production from oil wells as a tertiary oil recovery method known as “microbial enhanced oil recovery” (MEOR). Our focus has been to critically discuss and analyze the recent research trends in this field, with special attention devoted to separately assessing both laboratory and field cases to better demonstrate the progress being made across different MEOR techniques. MEOR strategies reviewed here include the uses of selective plugging, biopolymers, wettability alterations, bioacids, biosolvents, and biosurfactants. Additionally, the emerging contributions of genetically-engineered microorganisms for MEOR purposes (GEMEOR) and enzyme-enhanced oil recovery (EEOR) are also analyzed. While further research must still be done to optimize MEOR methods for the oil industry, biotechnology-based methods hold much promise for oil recovery operations as well as for oil spill remediation.

Recent developments in microbial enhanced oil recovery

Emulsification potential of a newly isolated biosurfactant-producing bacterium, Rhodococcus sp. strain TA6 B Biointerfaces

A review of recent developments in CO2 mobility control in enhanced oil recovery

Microbiota and their affiliation with physiochemical characteristics of different subsurface petroleum reservoirs

A novel Bacillus licheniformis strain (DM-1) was isolated from a mature reservoir in Dagang oilfield of China. DM-1 showed unique properties to utilize petroleum hydrocarbons and agroindustrial by-product (molasses) for exopolysaccharide (EPS) production under oil recovery conditions. The DM-1 EPS was proven to be a proteoglycan with a molecular weight of 568 kDa. The EPS showed shear thinning properties and had high viscosities at dilute concentrations (<1%, w/v), high salinities, and elevated temperatures. Strain DM-1 could degrade long-chain n-alkanes up to C36. Viscosity reduction test have shown that the viscosity of the crude oil was reduced by 40% compared with that before DM-1 treatment. Sand pack flooding test results under simulated reservoir conditions have shown that the enhanced oil recovery efficiency was 19.2% after 7 days of in-situ bioaugmentation with B. licheniformis DM-1. The obtained results indicate that strain DM-1 is a promising candidate for in situ microbial enhanced oil recovery (MEOR).

/pdf/a-novel-exopolysaccharide-producing-and-long-chain-n-alkane-4em6bvkmtj.pdf

A novel exopolysaccharide-producing and long-chain n-alkane degrading bacterium Bacillus licheniformis strain DM-1 with potential application for in-situ enhanced oil recovery.

The Athabasca Oil Sands are located within the Western Canadian Sedimentary Basin, which covers over 140,200 km2 of land in Alberta, Canada. The oil sands provide a unique environment for bacteria as a result of the stressors of low water availability and high hydrocarbon concentrations. Understanding the mechanisms bacteria use to tolerate these stresses may aid in our understanding of how hydrocarbon degradation has occurred over geological time, and how these processes and related tolerance mechanisms may be used in biotechnology applications such as microbial enhanced oil recovery (MEOR). The majority of research has focused on microbiology processes in oil reservoirs and oilfields; as such there is a paucity of information specific to oil sands. By studying microbial processes in oil sands there is the potential to use microbes in MEOR applications. This article reviews the microbiology of the Athabasca Oil Sands and the mechanisms bacteria use to tolerate low water and high hydrocarbon availability in oil reservoirs and oilfields, and potential applications in MEOR.

Microbial processes in the Athabasca Oil Sands and their potential applications in microbial enhanced oil recovery

THE EFFECT OF PHYSICOCHEMICAL PROPERTIES OF WASTEWATER FLOCS ON UV DISINFECTION FOLLOWING HYDRODYNAMIC PARTICLE BREAKAGE Robert Best Co-Advisors: Professor Marc Habash University of Guelph, 2012 Professor Steven Liss This study showed that hydrodynamic particle breakage had potential as a method to help improve the disinfection of wastewater effluents. The physicochemical properties of flocs from four distinct effluents sources (combined sewer overflow, settled combined sewer overflow, primary effluent, and final effluent) were compared before and after hydrodynamic treatment. The use of hydrodynamic force to cause floc breakage was shown to be effective, though variable, across all source types. This variation in floc breakage did not have a significant impact on the UV disinfection achieved, as the UV dose kinetics were similar across samples from the same source type. The results of this study demonstrate how the physicochemical properties of floc are affected when exposed to shear force. These observations further the understanding of floc composition and behaviour when shear forces are applied while also providing evidence to indicate this process improves the performance of UV disinfection technology.

The Effect of Physicochemical Properties of Wastewater Flocs on UV Disinfection Following Hydrodynamic Particle Breakage

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Microbial processes in the Athabasca Oil Sands and their potential applications in microbial enhanced oil recovery

The Effect of Physicochemical Properties of Wastewater Flocs on UV Disinfection Following Hydrodynamic Particle Breakage