Experimental study on wax removal and viscosity reduction of waxy crude oil by Ochrobactrumintermedium

Abstract

To investigate the influence of microbial wax removal and viscosity reduction technologies on the fluidity of waxy crude oil, this study took the waxy crude oil from China's Daqing Oilfield as the experimental object for microbial wax removal and viscosity reduction experiment. First, utilizing standard strain screening and culture protocols, a high-efficiency microbial strain H-1 (Ochrobactrum intermedium) was proposed from in situ soil. The single factor experiment and multi-factor response surface analysis were then utilized to optimize the temperature, initial pH value of the medium, and NaCl mass concentration needed for the strain's growth. Oil displaced activity and emulsification tests were used to evaluate the biosurfactants produced by the metabolism of strain H-1, and Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy was used to identify the types of biosurfactants. Finally, the application effect of strain H-1 on wax removal and viscosity reduction of waxy crude oil were clarified through the wax crystal morphology, wax content, and viscosity of waxy crude oil. The research findings indicated that strain H-1 produced best at a temperature of 38.5 °C, pH value was 7.1 and the mass fraction of NaCl was 0.64%. The lipopeptide biosurfactant produced by strain H-1 can displace oil. Additionally, strain H-1 has a high emulsifying capacity, with a 61.25% emulsifying coefficient. After 7 days of treatment with the strain H-1, the wax crystal morphology of the waxy crude oil changed from a large-sized aggregated to a small-sized sparse condition, and the wax content of the waxy crude oil fell by 38.67%. The viscosity reduction rate of strain H-1 to waxy crude oil was consistently greater than 30% over the temperature range of 30–42 °C, with the greatest rate of 42.38% at 39 °C. The preceding results demonstrate that strain H-1 can degrade the wax components of waxy crude oil, lower the crude oil's low temperature viscosity, and then improve the crude oil's low-temperature fluidity.