Isolation and characterization study towards microbial improved oil recovery applications

Abstract

The oil and gas sector has witnessed in the recent period significant attention towards sustainable methods to enhance the oil recovery, A vivid example of this trend is Microbial Improved Oil Recovery. MIOR over conventional EOR has offered a major advantage, such as low consumption of energy and without succumbing to the prices of gas and oil. In this study, the major work was to isolate and identify the microorganisms to harness the process for producing biosurfactants. The isolated strain of bacteria microorganisms, Pseudomonas (SPP) strains were capable to secrete extra-cellular biosurfactants at 37 °C in aerobic conditions which have grown in medium supplemented with a carbon source. It was observed that the biosurfactants lowered the surface tension of water from 62 to 26 mN/m. In conclusion, the desirability of this work shows that the isolated microorganisms can be regarded as a promising medium for the development of improved oil recovery methods.