Microbial enhanced oil recovery research. [Peptides]

Technical Report · Wed Jan 01 00:00:00 EST 1992

DOI:https://doi.org/10.2172/7053191· OSTI ID:7053191

Sharma, M M; Georgiou, G ^[1]

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1. Texas Univ., Austin, TX (United States)

The surface active lipopeptide produced by Bacillus licheniformis JF-2 was isolated to near apparent homogeneity. NMR experiments revealed that this compound consists of a heptapeptide with an amino acid sequence similar to surfactin and a heterogeneous fatty acid consisting of the normal-, anteiso-, and iso- branched isomers. The surface activity of the B. licheniformis JF-2 surfactant was shown to depend on the presence of fermentation products and is strongly affected by the pH. Under conditions of optimal salinity and pH the interfacial tension against decane was 6 [times] 10[sup 3] mN/m which is one of the lowest values ever obtained with a microbial surfactant. Microbial compounds which exhibit particularly high surface activity are classified as biosurfactants. Microbial biosurfactants include a wide variety of surface and interfacially active compounds, such as glycolipids, lipopeptides polysaccharideprotein complexes, phospholipids, fatty acids and neutral lipids. Biosurfactants are easily biodegradable and thus are particularly suited for environmental applications such as bioremediation and the dispersion of oil spills. Bacillus licheniformis strain JF-2 has been shown to be able to grow and produce a very effective biosurfactant under both aerobic and anaerobic conditions and in the presence of high salt concentrations. The production of biosurfactants in anaerobic, high salt environments is potentially important for a variety of in situ applications such as microbial enhanced oil recovery. As a first step towards evaluating the commercial utility of the B. licheniformis JF-2 surfactant, we isolated t-he active. compound from the culture supernatant, characterized its chemical structure and investigated its phase behavior. We found that the surface activity of the surfactant is strongly dependent on the pH of the aqueous. phase. This may be important for the biological function of the surfactant and is of interest for several applications in surfactancy.

• Research Organization: Texas Univ., Austin, TX (United States). Dept. of Petroleum Engineering
• Sponsoring Organization: USDOE; USDOE, Washington, DC (United States)
• DOE Contract Number: FG22-89BC14445
• OSTI ID: 7053191
• Report Number(s): DOE/BC/14445-T3; ON: DE93008388
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

02 PETROLEUM
BACILLUS LICHENIFORMIS
GROWTH
MICROBIAL EOR
BENCH-SCALE EXPERIMENTS
SURFACTANTS
BIOSYNTHESIS
STRUCTURAL CHEMICAL ANALYSIS
ANAEROBIC CONDITIONS
CARBON 13
EXPERIMENTAL DATA
INFRARED SPECTRA
INTERFACES
NMR SPECTRA
OIL WELLS
PH VALUE
PROGRESS REPORT
SURFACE TENSION
BACILLUS
BACTERIA
CARBON ISOTOPES
DATA
DOCUMENT TYPES
ENHANCED RECOVERY
EVEN-ODD NUCLEI
INFORMATION
ISOTOPES
LIGHT NUCLEI
MICROORGANISMS
NUCLEI
NUMERICAL DATA
SPECTRA
STABLE ISOTOPES
SURFACE PROPERTIES
SYNTHESIS
WELLS
020300* - Petroleum- Drilling & Production