Abstract
The viscosity of hydrocarbon reservoirs increases with age. So, a significant amount of oil is trapped in the underground reservoirs after recovery using primary and secondary methods. To improve the recovery, tertiary methods have been used. However, there is limited research on Microbial Enhanced Oil Recovery (MEOR) as a tertiary method due to microbes' inability to survive the high-temperature reservoir conditions. Consequently, the goal of this research is the creation of a novel bacteria strain for MEOR. The isolated bacteria colonies were inoculated in a batch fermentation broth, and the biosurfactant produced was screened using the oil displacement, emulsification index, modified drop-collapse test, surface tension, and interfacial tension criteria. The effects of pH (7.2 ā 10.52), and salinity (15 ā 35 %) at optimum temperature were studied on the selected isolate, which was identified by partial 16 rRNA gene sequence analysis. Gas Chromatography-Mass Spectroscopy was used to characterize the biosurfactants produced. The new isolate reduced heavy oil viscosity by 17% and produced a recovery factor in the range of 13-16.72%. The new bacteria is a thermophile and survived at a temperature of 65 Ā°C, indicating promise for use in MEOR.
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