The potential of indigenous Paenibacillus ehimensis BS1 for recovering heavy crude oil by biotransformation to light fractions.

ABSTRACT: Microbial Enhanced Oil Recovery (MEOR) is a potential technology for residual heavy oil recovery. Many heavy oil fields in Oman and elsewhere have difficulty in crude oil recovery because it is expensive due to its high viscosity. Indigenous microbes are capable of improving the fluidity of heavy oil, by changing its high viscosity and producing lighter oil fractions. Many spore-forming bacteria were isolated from soil samples collected from oil fields in Oman. Among the isolates, an autochthonous spore-forming bacterium was found to enhance heavy oil recovery, which was identified by 16S rDNA sequencing as Paenibacillus ehimensis BS1. The isolate showed maximum growth at high heavy oil concentrations within four days of incubation. Biotransformation of heavy crude oil to light aliphatic a

SUBMITTER: Shibulal B 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC5308839 | biostudies-literature | 2017

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature