Journal of Petroleum Exploration and Production Technology (Feb 2019)

Application of rhamnolipid biosurfactant produced by Pseudomonas aeruginosa in microbial-enhanced oil recovery (MEOR)

  • J. M. D. A. Câmara,
  • M. A. S. B. Sousa,
  • E. L. Barros Neto,
  • M. C. A. Oliveira

DOI
https://doi.org/10.1007/s13202-019-0633-x
Journal volume & issue
Vol. 9, no. 3
pp. 2333 – 2341

Abstract

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Abstract In this study, the biosurfactant produced by Pseudomonas aeruginosa was evaluated in view of its ability to be used in Microbial-Enhanced Oil Recovery (MEOR). This microorganism was isolated from a soil artificially contaminated with crude oil and used to produce rhamnolipid using glycerol as the carbon source. The biosurfactant efficiently reduced water surface tension from 72 to 35.26 mN/m at its critical micelle concentration of 127 mg/L and emulsification rate (E 24) of 69% for the crude oil. Furthermore, it was demonstrated that the rhamnolipid can recover oil, even 2 months after its production, which shows that its biodegradability is not a disadvantage to the application in MEOR. The best result, for a biosurfactant concentration of 100% above the Critical Micelle Concentration (CMC) and petroleum with API gravity of 21.90, showed that the total recovery factor was 50.45 ± 0.79%, of which 11.91 ± 0.39% corresponds to MEOR.

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