Skip to main content
U.S. Department of Energy
Office of Scientific and Technical Information

State-of-the-art of microbial enhanced oil recovery: a review of the literature

Technical Report ·
OSTI ID:6572171
This report is an overview of the literature on enhanced oil recovery (EOR) using microorganisms. Microorganisms can contribute to four major areas of oil technology, three of which relate to EOR: (1) microorganisms, because of their ability to grow rapidly and excrete several types of by-products, are used to manufacture biosurfactants and biopolymers for EOR; (2) microorganisms can be injected in situ to recover residual oil; (3) microorganisms can be used to selectively plug high permeability channels in reservoirs; and (4) microorganisms can be used to remove sulfur or nitrogen from crude oils, to reduce the viscosity of crude oils, and to clean up oil spills. Before either chemical or microbial technology is established, their environmental impacts should be defined. Environmental concerns of microbial EOR (MEOR) technology are presented in this report. The adverse effects of bacteria indigenous to some reservoirs, e.g., the sulfate reducers and certain aerobic bacteria, also are discussed with respect to MEOR processes. 64 references.
Research Organization:
National Inst. for Petroleum and Energy Research, Bartlesville, OK (USA)
DOE Contract Number:
FC01-83FE60149
OSTI ID:
6572171
Report Number(s):
NIPER-12; ON: DE84017403
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English

Similar Records

Microbial enhanced oil recovery
Conference · Wed Jun 01 00:00:00 EDT 1983 · Energy Technol. (Wash., D.C.); (United States) · OSTI ID:5396410

Survival of MEOR systems in porous media
Technical Report · Fri Feb 28 23:00:00 EST 1986 · OSTI ID:6009036

State-of-the-art review: microbial field technology. Topical report, Project BE3
Technical Report · Sun Jun 01 00:00:00 EDT 1986 · OSTI ID:5562957