Microbial selective plugging and enhanced oil recovery

Raiders, R.A.; Knapp, R.M.; McInerney, Michael J.

doi:10.1007/bf01574079

Cited by 76 publications

(25 citation statements)

References 23 publications

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“…Biofilms growing in porous environments facilitate a wide range of important processes in the natural environment and industry (8,(24)(25)(26)(67)(68)(69)(70)(71). Our proof-of-principle experiments, mathematical modeling, and game-theoretical analyses show that the feedback between biofilm proliferation and porous media hydrodynamics can dramatically affect how different genotypes compete.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 77%

“…Harnessing this effect, biofilms can be used to limit the transport of pollutants that have leaked into groundwater aquifers and to facilitate the extraction of petroleum from recalcitrant regions of reservoirs (23,24). However, biofilm-induced clogging also generates unwanted effects: for example, it severely limits the efficiency of porous filtration systems (25) and curtails the rate at which water infiltrates into aquifers (26), exacerbating droughts.…”

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confidence: 99%

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Microbial competition in porous environments can select against rapid biofilm growth

Coyte

Tabuteau

Gaffney

et al. 2016

Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A.

114

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Microbes often live in dense communities called biofilms, where competition between strains and species is fundamental to both evolution and community function. Although biofilms are commonly found in soil-like porous environments, the study of microbial interactions has largely focused on biofilms growing on flat, planar surfaces. Here, we use microfluidic experiments, mechanistic models, and game theory to study how porous media hydrodynamics can mediate competition between bacterial genotypes. Our experiments reveal a fundamental challenge faced by microbial strains that live in porous environments: cells that rapidly form biofilms tend to block their access to fluid flow and redirect resources to competitors. To understand how these dynamics influence the evolution of bacterial growth rates, we couple a model of flow-biofilm interaction with a game theory analysis. This investigation revealed that hydrodynamic interactions between competing genotypes give rise to an evolutionarily stable growth rate that stands in stark contrast with that observed in typical laboratory experiments: cells within a biofilm can outcompete other genotypes by growing more slowly. Our work reveals that hydrodynamics can profoundly affect how bacteria compete and evolve in porous environments, the habitat where most bacteria live. bacterial evolution | porous media flow | clogging | game theory | adaptive dynamics M odern microbiology relies on growing cells in liquid cultures and agar plates. Although these conditions offer high throughput and repeatability, they lack the complex physical and chemical landscapes that microbes experience in their natural environments. This environmental heterogeneity is increasingly recognized to exert a powerful influence on microbial ecology across a wide diversity of habitats, ranging from the ocean to the human gut (1-4). Although advances in sequencing technology now allow us to resolve how the genetic composition of microbial communities changes in response to environmental conditions (5, 6), we often lack a mechanistic understanding of the underlying processes. Novel empirical approaches, which simulate the conditions found in realistic microbial habitats, are needed to understand the strategies that cells use to gain an advantage over their competitors (7).The overwhelming majority of bacteria live in porous environments between the particles that compose soil, aquifers, and sediments, and cumulatively comprise roughly half of the carbon within living organisms globally (8). Cells in porous environments typically reside in surface attached structures known as biofilms (9), in which diverse bacterial genotypes live under intense competition for limited resources (10, 11). Recent efforts have identified specialized mechanisms that cells use to gain advantage over competing genotypes in biofilms, ranging from the secretion of toxins to polymer production and metabolic regulation (12-18). Whereas genotypic competition is most frequently studied in biofilms growing on simple flat surfaces (19-21...

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 77%

mentioning

confidence: 99%

Microbial competition in porous environments can select against rapid biofilm growth

Coyte

Tabuteau

Gaffney

et al. 2016

Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A.

114

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“…Many petroleum reservoirs have high NaCl concentrations (286) and require the use of bacteria which can tolerate these conditions (558). Bacteria producing biosurfactants and polymers can grow at NaCl concentrations of up to 8% and selectively plug sandstone to create a biowall to recover additional oil (499).…”

Section: Microbial Processes For Recovering and Upgrading Petroleum Mmentioning

confidence: 99%

Recent Advances in Petroleum Microbiology

Hamme¹,

Singh

Ward

2003

Microbiol Mol Biol Rev

1,195

640

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Recent advances in molecular biology have extended our understanding of the metabolic processes related to microbial transformation of petroleum hydrocarbons. The physiological responses of microorganisms to the presence of hydrocarbons, including cell surface alterations and adaptive mechanisms for uptake and efflux of these substrates, have been characterized. New molecular techniques have enhanced our ability to investigate the dynamics of microbial communities in petroleum-impacted ecosystems. By establishing conditions which maximize rates and extents of microbial growth, hydrocarbon access, and transformation, highly accelerated and bioreactor-based petroleum waste degradation processes have been implemented. Biofilters capable of removing and biodegrading volatile petroleum contaminants in air streams with short substrate-microbe contact times (<60 s) are being used effectively. Microbes are being injected into partially spent petroleum reservoirs to enhance oil recovery. However, these microbial processes have not exhibited consistent and effective performance, primarily because of our inability to control conditions in the subsurface environment. Microbes may be exploited to break stable oilfield emulsions to produce pipeline quality oil. There is interest in replacing physical oil desulfurization processes with biodesulfurization methods through promotion of selective sulfur removal without degradation of associated carbon moieties. However, since microbes require an environment containing some water, a two-phase oil-water system must be established to optimize contact between the microbes and the hydrocarbon, and such an emulsion is not easily created with viscous crude oil. This challenge may be circumvented by application of the technology to more refined gasoline and diesel substrates, where aqueous-hydrocarbon emulsions are more easily generated. Molecular approaches are being used to broaden the substrate specificity and increase the rates and extents of desulfurization. Bacterial processes are being commercialized for removal of H2S and sulfoxides from petrochemical waste streams. Microbes also have potential for use in removal of nitrogen from crude oil leading to reduced nitric oxide emissions provided that technical problems similar to those experienced in biodesulfurization can be solved. Enzymes are being exploited to produce added-value products from petroleum substrates, and bacterial biosensors are being used to analyze petroleum-contaminated environments

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“…The percentage of aromatic compounds was reduced, and the concentration of lighter hydrocarbons has increased (Figure 8a-c; Tables 2 and 3). SEM analysis of the core indicated the presence of both isolates inside the core, which indicated their ability to grow anaerobically (Figure 9a The migration of isolates inside the core was further determined by SEM analysis and the bioconversion of heavy crude oil was estimated by GC-MS analysis [3,[40][41][42]. The extra recovered oil was analyzed using GC-MS which revealed that the biotransformation of heavy crude has occurred anaerobically.…”

Section: Core Flooding Experimentsmentioning

confidence: 98%

Microbial-Enhanced Heavy Oil Recovery under Laboratory Conditions by Bacillus firmus BG4 and Bacillus halodurans BG5 Isolated from Heavy Oil Fields

Shibulal

Al-Bahry

Al-Wahaibi

et al. 2018

Colloids and Interfaces

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Microbial Enhanced Oil Recovery (MEOR) is one of the tertiary recovery methods. The high viscosity and low flow characteristics of heavy oil makes it difficult for the extraction from oil reservoirs. Many spore-forming bacteria were isolated from Oman oil fields, which can biotransform heavy crude oil by changing its viscosity by converting heavier components into lighter ones. Two of the isolates, Bacillus firmus BG4 and Bacillus halodurans BG5, which showed maximum growth in higher concentrations of heavy crude oil were selected for the study. Gas chromatography analysis of the heavy crude oil treated with the isolates for nine days showed 81.4% biotransformation for B. firmus and 81.9% for B. halodurans. In both cases, it was found that the aromatic components in the heavy crude oil were utilized by the isolates, converting them to aliphatic species. Core flooding experiments conducted at 50 • C, mimicking reservoir conditions to prove the efficiency of the isolates in MEOR, resulted in 10.4% and 7.7% for B. firmus and B. halodurans, respectively, after the nine-day shut-in period. These investigations demonstrated the potential of B. firmus BG4 and B. halodurans BG5 as an environmentally attractive approach for heavy oil recovery.

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Microbial selective plugging and enhanced oil recovery

Cited by 76 publications

References 23 publications

Microbial competition in porous environments can select against rapid biofilm growth

Microbial competition in porous environments can select against rapid biofilm growth

Recent Advances in Petroleum Microbiology

Microbial-Enhanced Heavy Oil Recovery under Laboratory Conditions by Bacillus firmus BG4 and Bacillus halodurans BG5 Isolated from Heavy Oil Fields

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