Microbial Enhanced Oil Recovery

This book presents the fundamentals of the reservoir and interfacial engineering. The book systematically starts with the basics of primary, secondary and tertiary (enhanced) oil recovery and emphasizes on the theory of microbial-enhanced oil recovery (MEOR) and its potential toward recovery of oil in place. Different approaches of MEOR such as in-situ, ex-situ, and integration of chemical- and microbial-enhanced oil recovery (EOR) are discussed in detail. This book highlights the link between the effectiveness of MEOR and the local reservoir conditions, crude oil characteristics, and indigenous microbial community. The latest implementations of MEOR across the globe are highlighted as case studies to outline the potential as well as the scope of MEOR. Given the topics covered, this book will be useful for professionals and researchers working in the areas of petroleum science and engineering, chemical engineering, biotechnology, bioengineering, and other related fields.

Prof. Lalit Pandey is an Associate Professor in the Department of Biosciences and Bioengineering, IIT Guwahati. He has completed his Ph.D. in Chemical Engineering from the Indian Institute of Technology, Delhi. He was awarded Erasmus Mundus India4EU Fellowship to pursue his research at Laboratoire des Matériaux et du Génie Physique (LMGP), Grenoble-INP, France, for 18 months during 2010 to 2012. Before joining the IIT Guwahati, he worked as a Scientist with the Central Pollution Control Board, Ministry of Environment & Forests, Government of India, from 2009 to 2014 and was researched on water and air pollution in agro-based industries. He has received several awards, including the Shastri Covid-19 Pandemic Response Grant (SCPRG) 2020, the DST-UKIERI Award 2018, the IEI (The Institution of Engineers [India]) Young Engineers Award 2017, Innovation in Science Pursuit for Inspired Research (INSPIRE) Faculty Award 2014, and Early Career Research Award from Science and EngineeringResearch Board (SERB) by Department of Science & Technology, Government of India. His research area includes biointerfaces and biomaterials, biochemical engineering and environmental biotechnology. He has published over seventy five scientific articles in international journals and serves on the editorial board of five international journals. He is serving as Associate Editor in Frontiers in Bioengineering and Biotechnology and Frontiers in Materials. He has co-edited one book titled “Biointerface Engineering: Prospects in Medical Diagnostics and Drug Delivery” published by Springer Nature in 2020. He is a life member of the International Association of Engineers (IAENG), the Indian Institute of Chemical Engineers (IIChE), the Biotech Research Society, India (BRSI), and Nano and Molecular Society (India), and serves as a reviewer for several peer-reviewed journals.


Prof. Pankaj Tiwari is an Associate Professor in the Department of Chemical Engineering, IIT Guwahati. He has received Ph.D. in Chemical Engineering from the University of Utah, USA. He is actively working on various enhanced oil recovery schemes, such as chemical EOR, gas-chemical EOR. He has successfully executed five sponsored projects from various funding agencies. He has an active collaboration in the area of EOR and also working on a project with Oil India Limited toward implementation of polymer and CO2 flooding in oil fields of Oil India Limited. He has published 40+ papers in reputed international journals including Journal of Petroleum Science and Engineering, Energy & Fuels, 2019, Colloids and Surfaces A and 6+ book chapters. He is a life member of the Indian Institute of Chemical Engineers (IIChE) and a regular member of the Institute of Engineers (India), the Society for Polymer Science, India, American Institute of Chemical Engineers (AIChE), and Society of Petroleum Engineers (SPE) and serves as a reviewer for several peer-reviewed journals. His research group isalso actively working in the area of Pyrolysis, Biofuels, Fluidized bed, Multiphase flow and waste to wealth.