Biotechnological applications in the oil industry

Abstract

During the 20th century, important relationships developed between the oil industry and both microbiological and biotechnological research. Basic microbiological research has played an important role in both the exploration and production sectors of the oil industry, but as the maturity of the industry has progressed, such contributions have been relegated with respect to their importance. With respect to refining and petrochemicals manufacture, process routes have been extensively researched, but only rarely have the biotechnological solutions developed satisfied the economic criteria that resulted in major investment. In fact, situations exist where investment has occurred, but project life was unrealistically short, suggesting a need for extreme caution when evaluating biotechnological processes for the oil industry. However, as far as engineered processes for both biotreatment and bioremediation are concerned, the fundamental research that has underpinned other areas of hydrocarbon microbiology will finally prove to be of both technical and economic value, in ensuring that the essential needs of treatment, rather than disposal, and restoration, rather than environmental destruction, can be satisfied by the oil and other industries involved in both geochemical manipulation and natural resource exploitation.

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“…Industrial effluents are often discharged at 50-130 • C, with temperatures frequently exceeding 80 • C (Hamer et al 1989). Treatment of such effluents at elevated temperatures would be inexpensive.…”

Biodegradation of Phenols by a Pure Bacteria of Pseudomonas Putida and by a Mixed Culture of Pseudomonas Various

“…The Haldane equation has been frequently used to describe the degradation of phenol in pure or mixed culture [1][2][3][4][5][6][7][8]. Thus, where: µ is the specific growth rate, c s is the phenol concentration, K S is the saturation coefficient for phenol, K i is the inhibition coefficient for phenol and µ m is the maximum specific growth rate of the biomass.…”