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ABSTRACT
Pseudomonas aeruginosa L6-1 was isolated from formation brine of Xinjiang Oilfield, China. Strain L6-1 showed perfect emulsification activity to crude oil and transformed mixture of crude oil and water into emulsion when crude oil was used as sole carbon source; thus, this method is a promising approach for emulsification and mobilization of residual oil in oil reservoirs and enhancement of its recovery. Average diameters of emulsified crude oil were between 1 and 8 µm. Interfacial tension of crude oil and water was reduced to 0.8 mN m−1. Strain L6-1 produced 2.2 g L−1 of rhamnolipid biosurfactant. Core flooding tests were carried out to investigate application potential of strain L6-1 for microbial enhanced oil recovery (MEOR). Enhanced oil recovery efficiencies ranged from 9.23% to 12.58% in both core models, with and without oxygen injection. These results revealed that strain L6-1 is a candidate functional microorganism for MEOR application.
Funding
This work was financially supported by the China Petroleum Science and Technology Major Project (No. 2016B-1106), the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Nos. 51634008 and 41403068), and the National High Technology Research and Development Program of China (No. 2013AA064402).