MICROBIAL ENHANCED OIL

RECOVERY

Presented
by
Er. Vivek Shrivastaw
Roll No -1151109
M.Tech 1st year Chemical Engineering

LIST OF CONTENT

Introduction
History of MEOR
Oil Recovery Mechanism
MEOR Mechanism
Advantages of MEOR
Problems of MEOR
Environmental Constrains
Conclusion
References

INTRODUCTION
Nowadays the majority of the worlds energy comes
from the crude oil.
A large production of this valuable and nonrenewable resource comes from the ground after
application of conventional oil extraction method.
There is a need to produce crude oil to overcome the
worldwide rising energy demand for that we are
following Enhanced Oil Recovery (EOR)process.
These method try to overcome the efficient of oil
recovery such as low permeability of some
reservoirs, the high viscosity of the crude oil, and
high oil-water interfacial tensions that may result in
high capillary forces retaining the oil in the reservoir
rock.

-cont.
Microbial Enhanced Oil recovery (MEOR) is one of
the EOR techniques where the bacterial and their
by-products are utilized for oil mobilization in a
reservoir.
MEOR is a process that increase the oil recovery
through the inoculation of microorganisms in a
reservoir.
In this Bacteria and their by-products cause some
beneficial effects such a formation of stable oilwater emulsion, reducing the interfacial tension etc.
Microbial technologies are becoming accepted
worldwide as cost-effective , improve oil production.

HISTORY OF MEOR
MEOR was first described by Beckman in 1926.Few studies
were conducted on this topic between 1926 - 1940.
In 1947, ZoBell initiated a new type of investigation in
the petroleum microbiology with application of oil
recovery.
He explained that the major MEOR mechanism which are
responsible for oil release from porous media, involve
processes such as dissolution of inorganic carbonates by
bacterial metabolites, production of bacterial gases, which
reduce the oil viscosity supporting its flow.
The application of MEOR as a tertiary recovery technique
and a natural step to decrease residual oil saturation.
Biotechnology research has improved, which has
influenced the oil industry to be more open to the
evaluation of microorganisms to enhance oil production.

OIL RECOVERY
PRODUCTION
Primary Production:
Primary oil recovery refers to the process of
extracting of oil either via the natural rise of
hydrocarbons to the surface of the earth or via
pump jacks and other artificial devices.
This technique only targets the oil, which is either
susceptible to its release or accessible to the pump
jack.
It is very limited in its extraction potential.
In this level extraction of oil around 10%-30%
recovered.

 Secondary Production:
This method involves the injection of gas or water,
which will displace the oil, force it to move from
its resting place and bring it to the surface.
It is typically successful in targeting an additional
30% of the oils reserves, through this it could be
more or less depending on the oil and rock
surrounding it.
Enhanced Oil Recovery:
Rather than simply trying to force the oil out of
the ground, as did the previous two methods, EOR
method is to make it more conducive to
extraction.
These are mainly three types like Thermal
Recovery, Gas Injection, Chemical Injection.

 Thermal Processes: The thermal process is

mostly used for recovery of heavy or viscous oils
is to supply the reservoir with heat energy in
order to increase the oil temperature and reduce
its viscosity and increasing the mobility of the oil
towards production wells.
Thermal processes can be conducted by two
different methods; steam flooding and in-situ
combustion. Steam flooding is the mostly widely
used EOR method and probably the most
profitable from an economic standpoint.
In the in-situ combustion method which is
theoretically more efficient than steam flood.
Due to the complex operational problems of this
method, it is not widely applied.

 Chemical Methods: These methods are not

profitable, In this process chemicals such as
surfactants , alkaline solutions, and polymers are
displacing water in order to change the
physicochemical properties of the water and the
contacted oil making the process more effective.
Miscible Displacement Processes: In this
method is to reduce the interfacial tension
between the displacing and displaced fluids to
near that leads to the total miscibility of the
solvent(gas) and oil, forming single homogeneous
moving phase.
This displacing fluid could be carbon dioxide,
nitrogen, exhaust gases, hydrocarbon solvents, or
even certain alcohols.

 Microbial processes(MEOR): Another tertiary of

oil recovery is microbial enhanced oil recovery,
commonly known as MEOR, which is an important
and rapidly developed tertiary production
technology.
In this microorganisms or their metabolites to
enhance the recovery of residual oil. In this
method, nutrients and suitable bacteria, which
can grow under the anaerobic reservoir
conditions, are injected in to the reservoir.
In MEOR process, different kinds of nutrients are
injected to the reservoirs.
The bacteria are usually hydrocarbon-utilizing ,
and that are naturally occurring in the petroleum
reservoirs.

MEOR MECHANISMS
Improvement of oil recovery through microbial
action can be performed through several
mechanisms such as reduction of oil-water
interfacial tension and wettability by surfactant
production and bacterial presence.
Bio surfactant : Chemical surfactants are
hazardous and costly compounds which are not
degradable and can be toxic to the environment.
Bio surfactants are high value products that due
to their superior characteristics , such as low
toxicity, ease of application, temperature and
salinity , are efficient alternatives to the
petroleum industry.

Microorganism, their metabolites and

application in MEOR
Microbial
Products

Example microbes Application in

MEOR

Biomass

Biomass Bacillus,
Xanthomonas

Selective plugging
and wettability
alteration

Surfactants

Pseudomonas,
Acinetobacter

Emulsification and
de-emulsification
through reduction of
IFT

Polymers

Bacillus,
Leuconostoc

Injective profile and

viscosity
modification,
selective plugging

Solvents

Clostridium,
Zymomonas

Rock dissolution for

better permeability,
oil viscosity
reduction

Acids

Clostridium, Mixed
acidogens

Permeability
increase,

MEOR ADVANTAGES
The major advantages of MEOR over other EOR
technologies .
Injected microbes and nutrients are cheap; easy to
handle in the field and independent of oil prices.
Increases oil production.
Less expansive set up, low energy input required
for microbes to produce MEOR agents.
More efficient than other EOR methods when
applied to carbonate oil reservoirs.
Microbial activity increases with microbial growth.
MEOR products are all bio degradable and will not
be accumulated in the environment.

PROBLEMS OF MEOR
The oxygen deployed in aerobic MEOR can act as
corrosive agent on down-hole piping
Exogenous microbes require facilities for their
cultivation.
Dispersion or transportation of all necessary
components to the target zone.

ENVIRONMENTAL
CONSTRAINTS
Temperature: The cellular growth will depends
on the Temperatures in the range of (<25C) for
psychrophilic,(25-45C)for mesophiles, (4560C)for thermophiles,(60-121C)for hyper
thermophiles.
Pressure: The microbes was enhanced by
increasing pressure.
pH: The acidity of alkalinity has an impact over
several aspects in living and non living system like
surface charge and enzymatic activity.

CONCLUSION
MEOR is a cost effective and co-friendly process that
shows several advantages over other EOR processes.
MEOR is well proven technology to enhance oil recovery
from oil wells with high water cuts and also improve it in
mature oil wells.
It is recommended to conduct toxicity tests on the
microbes that are to be used in the field to assure that it
is safe to handle and pose no threat to human or to the
environment.
Efficiency of recovery is high.
MEOR process to be well accepted and successful,
extensive laboratory tests are required for
implementation, to select the suitable microbes, to
understand the growth requirements and production
conditions.

REFERECES
Bacteria for improvement of oil recovery by
K.BEHLULGIL
Enhanced oil recovery An overview by S.Thomas
Uses of microbes in Petroleum Recovery
technology by Rebecca Bryant
http://www.rmotic.com/pdfs/97pt25.pdfs
Recovery of Oil Reservoirs. U.S patent No.
5.083.610

THANK YOU