Using biosurfactant producing bacteria isolated from an Iranian oil field for application in microbial enhanced oil recovery

Microbial enhanced oil recovery (MEOR) is a useful technique to improve oil recovery from depleted oil reservoirs beyond primary and secondary recovery operations using bacteria and their metabolites. In the present study, the biosurfactant production potential of Bacillus licheniformis microorganisms that were isolated from oil samples of Zilaei reservoir in the southwest of Iran was explored under extreme conditions. Growth media with different temperatures of 40, 50, 60, and 70°C; salinities of 1, 3, 5, and 7 wt%; and yeast extract concentrations of 0.5, 1, 1.5, and 2 g/L were used to find the optimum growth conditions. The results demonstrated that bacteria grown in a mineral salt solution with temperature of 50°C, salinity of 1 wt% and yeast extract concentration of 1 g/L has the highest growth rate and therefore, these conditions are the optimum conditions for growing the introduced bacterium. This isolate was selected as the higher biosurfactant producer. The obtained biosurfactants by bacteria isolated in a medium with these conditions could reduce the interfacial tension of crude oil/water system from 36.8 to 0.93 mN/m and surface tension of water from 72 to 23.8 mN/m. The results of the core flooding tests showed that the tertiary oil recovery efficiency due to the injection of microorganisms was 13.7% of original oil in place and bacteria could reduce the oil viscosity by 41.242% at optimum conditions. Based on these results, the isolated microorganism is a promising candidate for the development of microbial oil recovery processes.