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Core flooding tests to investigate the effects of IFT reduction and wettability alteration on oil recovery during MEOR process in an Iranian oil reservoir

  • Applied microbial and cell physiology
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Abstract

Microbial enhanced oil recovery (MEOR) refers to the process of using bacterial activities for more oil recovery from oil reservoirs mainly by interfacial tension reduction and wettability alteration mechanisms. Investigating the impact of these two mechanisms on enhanced oil recovery during MEOR process is the main objective of this work. Different analytical methods such as oil spreading and surface activity measurements were utilized to screen the biosurfactant-producing bacteria isolated from the brine of a specific oil reservoir located in the southwest of Iran. The isolates identified by 16S rDNA and biochemical analysis as Enterobacter cloacae (Persian Type Culture Collection (PTCC) 1798) and Enterobacter hormaechei (PTCC 1799) produce 1.53 g/l of biosurfactant. The produced biosurfactant caused substantial surface tension reduction of the growth medium and interfacial tension reduction between oil and brine to 31 and 3.2 mN/m from the original value of 72 and 29 mN/m, respectively. A novel set of core flooding tests, including in situ and ex situ scenarios, was designed to explore the potential of the isolated consortium as an agent for MEOR process. Besides, the individual effects of wettability alteration and IFT reduction on oil recovery efficiency by this process were investigated. The results show that the wettability alteration of the reservoir rock toward neutrally wet condition in the course of the adsorption of bacteria cells and biofilm formation are the dominant mechanisms on the improvement of oil recovery efficiency.

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Acknowledgments

The authors would like to thank the EOR Research Center and Biotechnology Institute of Shiraz University for providing the technical and financial support. Also, special thanks are due to Amin Ramezani and Farzaneh Aram for their technical help in this study.

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  1. Shahab Ayatollahi

    Present address: Sharif University of Technology, Tehran, Iran

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Petroleum Engineering, Petroleum University of Technology, Ahwaz, Iran

    Arash Rabiei & Abdolnabi Hashemi

  2. Department of Petroleum Engineering, Science and Research Branch, Islamic Azad University, Fars, Iran

    Milad Sharifinik

  3. Institute of Biotechnology, Shiraz University, Shiraz, Iran

    Ali Niazi

  4. Enhanced Oil Recovery Excellence Research Center, Shiraz University, Shiraz, Iran

    Shahab Ayatollahi

  5. School of Chemical and Petroleum Engineering, Shiraz University, Molla Sadra, P.O. Box: 71348-51154, Shiraz, Iran

    Shahab Ayatollahi

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  1. Arash Rabiei
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Rabiei, A., Sharifinik, M., Niazi, A. et al. Core flooding tests to investigate the effects of IFT reduction and wettability alteration on oil recovery during MEOR process in an Iranian oil reservoir. Appl Microbiol Biotechnol 97, 5979–5991 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00253-013-4863-4

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