Halotolerant, biosurfactant-producing Bacillus species potentially useful for enhanced oil recovery

Conference · Sat Jan 01 04:00:00 EST 1983 · Dev. Ind. Microbiol.; (United States)

OSTI ID:6232563

Jenneman, G E; McInerney, M J; Knapp, R M; Clark, J B; Feero, J M; Revus, D E; Menzie, D E

A biosurfactant-producing Bacillus licheniformis was isolated from oil-field injection water with properties potentially useful for in situ enhanced oil recovery. Conventional miscible flooding procedures use expensive synthetic detergents such as petroleum sulfonates that precipitate in high NaCl brines and adsorb to rock surfaces. The Bacillus sp. produced a biosurfactant when grown at 40 C in a sucrose mineral salts medium containing 5% NaCl. The biosurfactant was produced during the log phase of growth in the presence or absence of either crude oil or hexadecane. The surface tension of a 5% NaCl solution decreased from 74.0 mN/m to 27 mN/m when the surfactant was added. Interfacial tension of a 5% NaCl brine/octane mixture was as low as 0.43 mN/m when measured by a spinning drop tensiometer. The surfactant was extracted by acid precipitation at a pH of 2.0. The extracted surfactant exhibited optimal surface tension-lowering ability in 4-5% NaCl solutions between pH's of 6.0 to 10.0. The addition of calcium up to 340 mg/liter and incubation temperatures up to 100 C did not alter appreciably the surfactant activity. Mobilization of crude oil and oil bank formation occurred in a sandpack column after addition of the biosurfactant. 16 references, 1 figure, 2 tables.

• Research Organization: Univ. of Oklahoma, Norman
• OSTI ID: 6232563
• Report Number(s): CONF-8208164-
• Conference Information: Journal Name: Dev. Ind. Microbiol.; (United States) Journal Volume: 24
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

02 PETROLEUM
020300 -- Petroleum-- Drilling & Production
550700* -- Microbiology
59 BASIC BIOLOGICAL SCIENCES
ALKALI METAL COMPOUNDS
BACILLUS
BACTERIA
BIOSYNTHESIS
CHLORIDES
CHLORINE COMPOUNDS
DATA
ENERGY SOURCES
ENHANCED RECOVERY
EXPERIMENTAL DATA
FOSSIL FUELS
FUELS
HALIDES
HALOGEN COMPOUNDS
INFORMATION
MICROBIAL EOR
MICROORGANISMS
NUMERICAL DATA
PERFORMANCE
PETROLEUM
RECOVERY
SODIUM CHLORIDES
SODIUM COMPOUNDS
SURFACE PROPERTIES
SURFACE TENSION
SURFACTANTS
SYNTHESIS
TOLERANCE