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The Effects of Surfactants on the Estimation of Bacterial Density in Petroleum Samples

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Abstract

The effect of the surfactants polyoxyethylene monostearate (Tween 60), polyoxyethylene monooleate (Tween 80), cetyl trimethyl ammonium bromide (CTAB), and sodium dodecyl sulfate (SDS) on the estimation of bacterial density (sulfate-reducing bacteria [SRB] and general anaerobic bacteria [GAnB]) was examined in petroleum samples. Three different compositions of oil and water were selected to be representative of the real samples. The first one contained a high content of oil, the second one contained a medium content of oil, and the last one contained a low content of oil. The most probable number (MPN) was used to estimate the bacterial density. The results showed that the addition of surfactants did not improve the SRB quantification for the high or medium oil content in the petroleum samples. On other hand, Tween 60 and Tween 80 promoted a significant increase on the GAnB quantification at 0.01% or 0.03% m/v concentrations, respectively. CTAB increased SRB and GAnB estimation for the sample with a low oil content at 0.00005% and 0.0001% m/v, respectively.

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Acknowledgements

The authors would like to thank the Brazilian Petrobras (BTA Division) for providing the samples and procedures to develop this work. This work is part of the M.Sc. Thesis of K.Y.M.A.

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  1. Programa de Pós-graduação em Engenharia Química, Instituto de Química, Universidade do Estado do Rio de Janeiro, Rua São Francisco Xavier, 524-PHLC-sala 427, Rio de Janeiro, 20559-900, Brazil

    Aderval Severino Luna, Antonio Carlos Augusto da Costa, Márcia Monteiro Machado Gonçalves & Kelly Yaeko Miyashiro de Almeida

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  1. Aderval Severino Luna
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  2. Antonio Carlos Augusto da Costa
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  3. Márcia Monteiro Machado Gonçalves
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  4. Kelly Yaeko Miyashiro de Almeida
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Correspondence to Aderval Severino Luna.

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Luna, A.S., da Costa, A.C.A., Gonçalves, M.M.M. et al. The Effects of Surfactants on the Estimation of Bacterial Density in Petroleum Samples. Appl Biochem Biotechnol 147, 77–84 (2008). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12010-007-8094-y

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12010-007-8094-y

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