COMBINED MICROBIAL SURFACTANT-POLYMER SYSTEM FOR IMPROVED OIL MOBILITY AND CONFORMANCE CONTROL
Many domestic oil fields are facing abandonment even though they still contain two-thirds of their original oil. A significant number of these fields can yield additional oil using advanced oil recovery (AOR) technologies. To maintain domestic oil production at current levels, AOR technologies are needed that are affordable and can be implemented by the independent oil producers of the future. Microbial enhanced oil recovery (MEOR) technologies have become established as cost-effective solutions for declining oil production. MEOR technologies are affordable for independent producers operating stripper wells and can be used to extend the life of marginal fields. The demonstrated versatility of microorganisms can be used to design advanced microbial systems to treat multiple production problems in complex, heterogeneous reservoirs. The proposed research presents the concept of a combined microbial surfactant-polymer system for advanced oil recovery. The surfactant-polymer system utilizes bacteria that are capable of both biosurfactant production and metabolically-controlled biopolymer production. This novel technology combines complementary mechanisms to extend the life of marginal fields and is applicable to a large number of domestic reservoirs. The research project described in this report was performed by Bio-Engineering Inc., a woman owned small business, Texas A&M University and Prairie View A&M University, a Historically Black College and University. This report describes the results of our laboratory work to grow microbial cultures, the work done on recovery experiments on core rocks, and computer simulations. We have selected two bacterial strains capable of producing both surfactant and polymers. We have conducted laboratory experiments to determine under what conditions surfactants and polymers can be produced from one single strain. We have conduct recovery experiments to determine the performance of these strains under different conditions. Our results show a significant influence of nutrient regime on alternate production of surfactants or polymers for a Bacillus licheniformis strain, NIPER 1A. The main conclusion of this work is that NIPER 1A can produce both surfactant and polymer by nutrient regime manipulation. Our experiments proved that this property leads to improved oil recovery by increasing alternatively, oil mobility and conformance control.
- Research Organization:
- Prairie View A&M State University
- Sponsoring Organization:
- USDOE
- DOE Contract Number:
- FG26-01NT41357
- OSTI ID:
- 881858
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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