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Core flooding tests to investigate the effects of IFT reduction and wettability alteration on oil recovery during MEOR process in an Iranian oil reservoir

Rabiei, A ; Sharif University of Technology | 2013

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  1. Type of Document: Article
  2. DOI: 10.1007/s00253-013-4863-4
  3. Publisher: 2013
  4. Abstract:
  5. Microbial enhanced oil recovery (MEOR) refers to the process of using bacterial activities for more oil recovery from oil reservoirs mainly by interfacial tension reduction and wettability alteration mechanisms. Investigating the impact of these two mechanisms on enhanced oil recovery during MEOR process is the main objective of this work. Different analytical methods such as oil spreading and surface activity measurements were utilized to screen the biosurfactant-producing bacteria isolated from the brine of a specific oil reservoir located in the southwest of Iran. The isolates identified by 16S rDNA and biochemical analysis as Enterobacter cloacae (Persian Type Culture Collection (PTCC) 1798) and Enterobacter hormaechei (PTCC 1799) produce 1.53 g/l of biosurfactant. The produced biosurfactant caused substantial surface tension reduction of the growth medium and interfacial tension reduction between oil and brine to 31 and 3.2 mN/m from the original value of 72 and 29 mN/m, respectively. A novel set of core flooding tests, including in situ and ex situ scenarios, was designed to explore the potential of the isolated consortium as an agent for MEOR process. Besides, the individual effects of wettability alteration and IFT reduction on oil recovery efficiency by this process were investigated. The results show that the wettability alteration of the reservoir rock toward neutrally wet condition in the course of the adsorption of bacteria cells and biofilm formation are the dominant mechanisms on the improvement of oil recovery efficiency
  6. Keywords:
  7. Biosurfactant ; Interfacial tension ; Microbial enhanced oil recovery (MEOR) ; Amott test ; Bio surfactant ; Core flooding test ; Bacteria ; Biomolecules ; Enhanced recovery ; Floods ; Surface active agents ; Wetting ; Petroleum reservoirs ; DNA 16S ; Bacterium ; Biofilm ; Geomicrobiology ; Hydrocarbon reservoir ; Microbial activity ; Oil well ; Surface area ; Bacterial growth ; Bacterium culture ; Bacterium isolate ; Biochemistry ; Flooding ; Fuel and fuel related phenomena ; Nonhuman ; Oil field ; Oil spill ; Surface tension ; DNA, Bacterial ; DNA, Ribosomal ; Enterobacter ; Industrial Microbiology ; Molecular Sequence Data ; Oil and Gas Fields ; RNA, Ribosomal, 16S ; Sequence Analysis, DNA ; Surface-Active Agents ; Wettability ; Bacteria (microorganisms) ; Enterobacter cloacae ; Enterobacter hormaechei
  8. Source: Applied Microbiology and Biotechnology ; Volume 97, Issue 13 , July , 2013 , Pages 5979-5991 ; 01757598 (ISSN)
  9. URL: http://link.springer.com/article/10.1007%2Fs00253-013-4863-4