Microbial enhanced oil recovery is one of the EOR techniques where bacteria and their by-products are utilized for oil mobilization in a reservoir. It is the process that increases oil recovery through inoculation of microorganisms in a reservoir, aiming that bacteria and their by-products cause some beneficial effects.

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2. PHYSICAL CHEMISTRY
A Presentation by
MEHREEN SHARIF
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4. Contents
 Oil Consumption and its Recovery
 Methods of Enhanced Oil Recovery
 Microbial Enhanced Oil Recovery (MEOR)
 Use of Microorganisms in MEOR
 MEOR Processes
 Biosurfactants Application
 Economical Feasibility
 Ecological Impact
 Limitations
 Conclusions
 References
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5. OBJECTIVES
To make familiar with the current situation of world oil
consumption
To tell about different oil recovery methods
To introduce about Microbial Enhanced Oil Recovery (MEOR)
To discuss economical and ecological assessment of MEOR
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6. OIL CONSUMPTION AND FUTURE ANALYSIS
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7. THE SHORTFALL
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OIL RECOVERY METHODS
Primary Oil Recovery
Secondary Oil
Recovery
Tertiary Oil Recovery

9. Primary Oil Recovery
 The initial stage of producing oil from a
reservoir.
 Natural gas expansion
 Use natural forces such as expansion of oil,
gas or both
• Displacement by naturally pressurized water
• Drainage from a reservoir in lower elevation
• Artificial techniques (pumps)
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10. Secondary Oil Recovery
 Injection of external fluids into a reservoir
to increase reservoir pressure and to
displace oil towards the wellbore
 Essentially augmenting the natural forces
used in primary methods
 Water flooding
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11. Water flooding
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12. Tertiary Oil Recovery
 Allows injection of different materials to
improve the flow between oil, gas and rock
to recover crude oil remaining after primary
and secondary phases
 Tertiary or Enhanced Oil Recovery (EOR)
 Thermal Processes
 Injection of steam or hot water
 Chemical Methods
 Alkalis, surfactants and polymers
 Microbial Processes (MEOR)
 Uses microorganisms and their metabolites
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13. PERCENT OIL RECOVERY OF OOIP
 Primary Oil Recovery : 10-15% of OOIP
 Secondary Oil Recovery: 15-30% of OOIP
 Tertiary Oil Recovery: 60% of OOIP
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14. MICROBIAL ENHANCED OIL RECOVERY
(MEOR)
 One of the EOR techniques where bacteria and their by-
products are utilized for oil mobilization in a reservoir.
 Process that increases oil recovery through inoculation of
microorganisms in a reservoir, aiming that bacteria and their
by-products cause some beneficial effects such as;
 formation of stable oil-water emulsions
 mobilization of residual oil
 diverting of injection fluids
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15. Why we needed MEOR?
 A large proportion of crude oil; a valuable and non-renewable
energy resource, is left behind in the ground.
 A dire need to produce more crude oil to meet the worldwide
rising energy demand
 Previously un-extractable reserves are more costly to produce
 MEOR extra 20-30% oil recovery
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16. NUTRIENTS
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17. MICROORGANISMS IN MEOR
 Nature of microorganisms
 mostly anaerobic extremophiles
 Bacteria are usually hydrocarbon-utilizing, non-pathogenic,
and are naturally occurring in petroleum reservoirs.
 Bacterial population can tolerate harsh environments.
 Maximum growth rate of microbes selected for use,
 In past below 80ºC now up to 121ºC
 Bacillus strains grown on glucose mineral salts medium (most
utilized in MEOR)
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18. Different microorganisms, their related metabolites
and applications in MEOR
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Sen, R. Biotechnology in petroleum recovery: the microbial EOR. Progress in energy
and combustion Science, 34(6): 714-724 (2008)

19. BIOSURFACTANTS ROLE IN IFT REDUCTION
 Certain bacteria produce biosurfactants that reduce oil/water
interfacial tension (IFT)
 The IFT between hydrocarbon and water is typically about
30-40 mN/m.
 The biosurfactants must reduce IFT at least to below 0.01 to
0.001 mN/m to have any effect on oil recovery.
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21. INJECTION
Water
Nutrients
Microbes
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22. Huff and Puff Method
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23. MEOR PROCESSES
Cyclic Microbial Recovery
Selective Plugging Recovery
Microbial Flooding Recovery
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24. a) CYCLIC MICROBIAL RECOVERY
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25. b) SELECTIVE PLUGGING
 Injection of bacterial suspensions followed by nutrients to
produce biopolymer and microbial itself, which may plug the
high permeability zone in the reservoir.
 The reduction of permeability would
change the inject profile and achieve
conformance control.
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26. c) MICROBIAL FLOODING RECOVERY
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27. Biosurfactant Metabolite Modeling
 Empirical equation to demonstrate the surfactant’s effect on
IFT σ ,
σ∗(Ms) = σ − tanh(l3 Ms − l2) + 1 + l1
− tanh(−l2) + 1 + l1
Here,
σ∗ is new IFT value,
Ms is the concentration of surfactant
lj,various properties of surfactant
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28. ECONOMICAL FEASIBILITY
 Increase the production of oil
 Higher economic lifetime of the wells
 Microbes and nutrients are relatively inexpensive
 Low operating cost and profitable
 Economically attractive for marginally producing oil fields
 Implementation needs minor modifications to existing field
facilities
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29. ECOLOGICAL IMPACT
Eco-friendly
MEOR produce organic chemicals less harmful than synthetic
chemicals used by other Enhanced Oil Recovery methods.
 Biodegradable Products
MEOR products are all biodegradable and will not be
accumulated in the environment, therefore are environmentally
compatible.
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30. LIMITATIONS
 Mineral Content
Increasing salinity absorbs water from the microbe and negatively
effects its growth
 Reservoir parameters
Permeability, temperature, pH, etc. affects selection of our types
and our growth
 Lack of experience
Study of bacteria metabolism, and relation to subsurface
environment, need great effort
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31. Continue...
 Sulfate-reducing bacteria
Produce H2S and SO2 causing bio-
corrosion of the equipment, and
contamination of ground water
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32. CONCLUSIONS
Great achievements
MEOR has developed for decades. MEOR has great potential
to become a viable alternative to the traditional EOR chemical
methods. A series of fundamental research work has been
done. Several pilot tests have been applied in the fields.
 Promising EOR technology
The success of research work and pilot tests makes this
technology attractive in the industry. This cost-effective and eco-
friendly methods could contribute more in oil production,
especially in mature oil fields.
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33. Continue…
 Need more efforts
Since this technology has developed for a relatively long time,
and has great achievements, to turn the promising into reality
needs more efforts. The modern biological technology accelerates
MEOR, which needs money and talents.
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34. REFERENCES
 Geetha, S. J., Banat, I. M. and Joshi, S. J. Biosurfactants: Production and potential
applications in Microbial Enhanced Oil Recovery (MEOR). Biocatalysis and
Agricultural Biotechnology, 14: 23-32 (2018)
 Wang, T., Yu, L., Xiu, J., Ma, Y., Lin, W., Ma, T. and Wang, L. A mathematical
model for microbial enhanced oil recovery using biopolymer-producing
microorganism. Fuel, 216: 589-595 (2018)
 Zhao, F., Shi, R., Cui, Q., Han, S., Dong, H. and Zhang, Y. Biosurfactant production
under diverse conditions by two kinds of biosurfactant-producing bacteria for
microbial enhanced oil recovery. Journal of Petroleum Science and Engineering,
157: 124-130 (2017)
 Sivasankar, P. and Kumar, G. S. Influence of pH on dynamics of microbial enhanced
oil recovery processes using biosurfactant producing Pseudomonas putida:
Mathematical modelling and numerical simulation. Bioresource technology, 224:
498-508 (2017)
 Xuezhong, W. A. N. G., Yuanliang, Y. A. N. G. and Weijun, X. I. Microbial
enhanced oil recovery of oil-water transitional zone in thin-shallow extra heavy oil
reservoirs: A case study of Chunfeng Oilfield in western margin of Junggar Basin,
NW China. Petroleum Exploration and Development, 43(4): 689-694 (2016)
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35.  Hosseininoosheri, P., Lashgari, H. R. and Sepehrnoori, K. A novel method to
model and characterize in-situ bio-surfactant production in microbial enhanced
oil recovery. Fuel, 183: 501-511 (2016)
 Santos, D. K. F., Rufino, R. D., Luna, J. M., Santos, V. A and Sarubbo, L. A.
Biosurfactants: multifunctional biomolecules of the 21st century. International
journal of molecular sciences, 17(3): 401(2016)
 El-Sheshtawy, H. S., Aiad, I., Osman, M. E., Abo-ELnasr, A. A. and Kobisy, A.
S. Production of biosurfactant from Bacillus licheniformis for microbial
enhanced oil recovery and inhibition the growth of sulfate reducing bacteria.
Egyptian Journal of Petroleum, 24(2): 155-162 (2015)
 Hung, H. C. and Shreve, G. S. Effect of the hydrocarbon phase on interfacial
and thermodynamic properties of two anionic glycolipid biosurfactants in
hydrocarbon/water systems. The Journal of Physical Chemistry B, 105 (50):
12596-12600 (2001)
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37. ANY QUESTION!
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