• Journal of Microbiology and Biotechnology
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• v.25 no.6
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• pp.918-929
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• 2015

Microbial enhanced oil recovery (MEOR) is being used more widely, and the biological contributions involved in MEOR need to be identified and quantified for the improvement of field applications. Owing to the excellent interfacial activity and the wide distribution of producing strains in oil reservoirs, lipopeptides have proved to be an essential part of the complex mechanisms in MEOR. In this study, crude lipopeptides were produced by a strain isolated from an indigenous community in an oil reservoir. It was found that crude lipopeptides can effectively reduce the IFT (interfacial tension) to 10^-1~10^-2 mN/m under high salinity without forming stable emulsions, and the wettability of natural sandstone can be enhanced (Amott index, from 0.36 to 0.48). The results of core flooding experiments indicate that an additional 5.2% of original oil in place can be recovered with a 9.5% reduction of injection pressure. After the shut-in period, the wettability of the core, the reduction of injection pressure, and the oil recovery can be improved to 0.63, 16.2% and 9.6%, respectively. In the microscopic flooding experiments, the crude oil in membrane, cluster, and throat states contribute nearly 90% in total of the additional oil recovery, and the recovery of membranestate oil was significantly enhanced by 93.3% after shut in. Based on the results in macro and pore scale, the IFT reduction and the wettability alteration are considered primary contributors to oil recovery, while the latter was more dominant after one shut-in period.

• Journal of Microbiology and Biotechnology
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• v.19 no.10
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• pp.1230-1237
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• 2009

The selective plugging strategy of Microbial Enhanced Oil Recovery (MEOR) involves the use of microbes that grow and produce exopolymeric substances, which block the high permeability zones of an oil reservoir, thus allowing the water to flow through the low permeability zones leading to increase in oil recovery. Bacillus licheniformis TT33, a hot water spring isolate, is facultatively anaerobic, halotolerant, and thermotolerant. It produces EPS as well as biosurfactant and has a biofilm-forming ability. The viscosity of its cell-free supernatant is $120\;mPa{\cdot}s$ at $28^{\circ}C$. Its purified EPS contained 26% carbohydrate and 3% protein. Its biosurfactant reduced the surface tension of water from 72 to 34 mN/m. This strain gave $27.7{\pm}3.5%$ oil recovery in a sand pack column. Environmental scanning electron microscopy analysis showed bacterial growth and biofilm formation in the sand pack. Biochemical tests and Amplified Ribosomal DNA Restriction Analysis confirmed that the oil recovery obtained in the sand pack column was due to Bacillus licheniformis TT33.

• Journal of Microbiology and Biotechnology
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• v.23 no.1
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• pp.106-117
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• 2013

Microbial enhanced oil recovery (MEOR) is one of the most economical and efficient methods for extending the life of production wells in a declining reservoir. Microbial consortia from Wafra oil wells and Suwaihat production water, Al-Wusta region, Oman were screened. Microbial consortia in brine samples were identified using denaturing gradient gel electrophoresis and 16S rRNA gene sequences. The detected microbial consortia of Wafra oil wells were completely different from microbial consortia of Suwaihat formation water. A total of 33 genera and 58 species were identified in Wafra oil wells and Suwaihat production water. All of the identified microbial genera were first reported in Oman, with Caminicella sporogenes for the first time reported from oil fields. Most of the identified microorganisms were found to be anaerobic, thermophilic, and halophilic, and produced biogases, biosolvants, and biosurfactants as by-products, which may be good candidates for MEOR.

• Journal of the Korean Institute of Gas
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• v.16 no.3
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• pp.35-41
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• 2012

Manifold researches for carbon capture and storage (CCS) have been developed and large scale-carbon capture system can be performed recently. Hence, the technologies for $CO_2$ sequestration or storage become necessary to handle the captured $CO_2$. Among them, enhanced oil recovery using $CO_2$ can be a solution since it guarantees both oil recovery and $CO_2$ sequestration. In this study, the miscible flow of oil and $CO_2$ in porous media is modeled to analyze the effect of enhanced oil recovery and $CO_2$ sequestration. Based on Darcy-Muskat law, the equation is modified to consider miscibility of oil and $CO_2$ and the change of viscosity. Finite volume method is used for numerical modeling. As results, the pressure and oil saturation changes with time can be predicted when oil, water, and $CO_2$ are injected, respectively, and $CO_2$ injection is more efficient than water injection for oil recovery.

• Journal of the Korean Applied Science and Technology
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• v.38 no.4
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• pp.1010-1019
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• 2021

Petroleum oil in reservoir has been acquired by primary, secondary and tertiary oil recoveries. Microbial enhanced oil recovery (MEOR) classified to tertiary oil recovery has been evaluated in two ways of in-situ and ex-situ options. In-situ MEOR injects microbes into a depleted oil reservoir and stimulates those to generate metabolites. Among metabolites, biosurfactants play an important role to make heavy residues flow. Ex-situ MEOR injects microbial metabolites instead of microbes into a reservoir to recover oil. Even though both in-situ MEOR and ex-situ MEOR are eco-friend processes, in-situ MEOR can be preferred because it is more economic. Even though MEOR have been evaluated for a long time, it is still in the state of evaluating in a pilot-scale. Among microbes, bacteria have been widely evaluated in MEOR purpose. In this paper, bacteria for MEOR were summarized and their metabolites were qualitatively evaluated.

• Journal of the Korean Institute of Gas
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• v.27 no.3
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• pp.59-71
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• 2023

Carbon capture, and storage (CCS) is important for the reduction of greenhouse gases and achieving carbon neutrality. CCS focuses on storing captured CO₂ permanently in underground reservoirs. CO₂-enhanced oil recovery (CO₂-EOR) is one form of CCS, where CO₂ is injected into the underground to enhance oil recovery. CO₂-EOR not only aids in the extraction of residual oil but also contributes to carbon neutrality by storing CO₂ underground continuously. CO₂-EOR can be classified into miscible and immiscible methods, with the CO₂-water alternating gas (CO₂-WAG) technique being a representative approach within the miscible method. In CO₂-WAG, water and CO₂ are alternately injected into the reservoir, enabling oil production and CO₂ storage. The WAG method allows for controlling the breakthrough of injection fluids, providing advantages in oil recovery. It also induces hysteresis in relative permeability during the injection and production process, expanding the amount of trapped CO₂. In this study, the effects of enhancing oil recovery and storing CO₂ underground during CO₂-EOR were presented. Additionally, cases of CO₂-EOR application in relation to CCS were introduced.

• Geosystem Engineering
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• v.21 no.6
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• pp.335-343
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• 2018

Alkali-surfactant polymer flooding has become an important technique to improve oil recovery following the development of oil fields while the function of emulsification in enhanced oil recovery is rarely considered in the existing mathematical model for numerical simulation. In this paper, the mechanism of improving the recovery of the emulsification was analyzed in ASP flooding, and a relatively perfect mathematical model with deep filtration-theory was established, in which oil-water volume equation, saturation equation, viscosity equation, and permeability reduction equation are included. The new model is used to simulate the actual block of an oil field; the simulated results of the new model and an old model without considering the emulsification are compared with the actual well history. It is found that new model which is easy to be realized in numerical simulation has a high precision fitting, and the effect of adding oil and decreasing water is obvious. The sensitivity of emulsification was analyzed, and the results show that the water reducing funnel becomes wider and the rate of water cut decreases rapidly with the increase of emulsifying capacity, and then the rate of recovery slows down. The effect of increasing oil and decreasing water is better, and the degree of recovery increases. The emulsification of the ASP flooding is maintained at a moderate level, which corresponds to ${\Phi}=0.2$ in the new model, and the emulsification is applied to realize the general mathematical quantitative description, so as to better guide the oilfield development.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Mineral and Energy Resources Engineers
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• v.55 no.6
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• pp.660-669
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• 2018

Enhanced oil recovery (EOR) is a method used to improve the recovery factor of remaining hydrocarbon in reservoir. Polymer and surfactant EOR techniques have limitations depending on reservoir or production conditions (temperature, salinity, etc.) because the polymer and surfactant are highly affected by the reservoir conditions. In this study, analysis of the current improvements to chemical substances and application technologies was performed based on recent research data. Conventional polymer is readily degraded by the conditions of high temperature and high salinity. Therefore, new polymers and injection techniques have been developed to remediate such problems. In addition, surfactant applicable to shale and carbonate reservoirs is developed as petroleum recovery expands to unconventional reservoirs. However, these chemical substances are not widely used in the current oil fields due to high costs. Therefore, further studies must be conducted to reduce the cost and thus increase the effectiveness of EOR techniques.

• Journal of Microbiology and Biotechnology
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• v.23 no.3
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• pp.390-396
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• 2013

Biosurfactants have versatile properties and potential industrial applications. A new producer, B. subtilis TU2, was isolated from the underground oil-extraction wastewater of Shengli Oilfield, China. Preliminary flask culture showed that the titer of biosurfactant obtained from the broth of TU2 was ~1.5 g/l at 48 h (718 mg/l after purification), with a reduced surface tension of 32.5 mN/m. The critical micelle concentration was measured as 50 mg/l and the surface tension maintained stability in solution with 50 g/l NaCl and 16 g/l $CaCl_2$ after 5 days of incubation at $70^{\circ}C$. FT-IR spectra exhibited the structure information of both glycolipid and lipopeptide. MALDI-TOF-MS analyses confirmed that the biosurfactant produced by B. subtilis TU2 was a blend of glycolipid and lipopeptide, including rhamnolipid, surfactin, and fengycin. The blended biosurfactant showed 86% of oil-washing efficiency and fine emulsification activity on crude oil, suggesting its potential application in enhanced oil recovery.

• Transactions of the Korean Society of Mechanical Engineers B
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• v.34 no.5
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• pp.457-464
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• 2010

Representative methods for removing spilled oil include mechanical skimming, chemical treatment, burning at the surface of the spilled oil, and microbiological degradation. Among these methods, mechanical skimmer is the most efficient. Mechanical skimming can be classified into the following categories: belt-type, disk-type, weir-type, drum-type. We designed models with a submerged orifice for use in our experiments, for an objective and systematic evaluation of the recovery efficiency of mechanical skimming. Basically, oil is lighter than seawater and hence tends to float on the surface of the latter if there is sufficient time for floating. The present skimmer is kind of wear-type with the submerged orifice for seawater to be squeezed through, minimizing water content in the tank. From the experimental results, we identify the parameters that influence the oil recovery rate and recovery efficiency. The recovery efficiency can be enhanced by increasing the thickness of the oil layer in the first oil accumulative tank.