060 Cutse-2011 PDF
060 Cutse-2011 PDF
060 Cutse-2011 PDF
Alireza Soudmand-asli
School of Chemical and Petroleum Engineering
Shiraz University
Shiraz, Iran
a.soudmand@sazeh.co.ir
Abstract— Permeability modification of porous media using biochemical to recover trapped oil; and (b) they can selectively
microorganisms to enhance oil recovery has become a useful and plug high-permeability channels so that the sweep efficiency of
feasible technology for oil production from watered-out oil fields. the recovery process can be increased [4]. Producing gases,
The purpose of these experimental experiences was to determine biosurfactants, biopolymers and other non-toxic biochemical
capability of microorganisms to reduction of the permeable zone. may be carried out in situ (in reservoir rock) or ex situ (in the
A sand packed column and a two dimensional glass micromodel controlled environment of a fermenter). Beside the mentioned
were used to demonstrate the effectiveness of in situ profile classification, microbial enhanced oil recovery can be
modification with spores. In both cases, the apparatus conditions classified in aspect of manner of performing the process to well
were chosen to isolate the plugging mechanisms just associated
bore clean up [5], cyclic Microbial Recovery [6], and
with exopolymer production and eliminate any impact of cell
growth to profile modification. Bacillus Licheniformis (an
Microbial flooding [7]. The mechanisms by which MEOR
exopolymer producing bacterium) was employed in this set of processes operate can be quite complex and may involve
experiments. Temperature, salinity, and incubation times were multiple biochemical and biophysical process steps such as:
three different variables that were studied in these investigations. • Reduction of Interfacial tension [8].
The results show that B. licheniformis is proper to make plugging
to profile modification in salty reservoir with temperatures close • Changes in wettability [9, 10].
to 40ºC. In Addition it was demonstrated that this bacteria can • Changes in flow pattern [11].
reduce the permeability of reservoir as incubation time is • Acid production [12-14].
increasing. Likewise, the visual results of glass micromodel • Biopolymer production [13].
experiments were compatible to sand packed surveys. Hence, B. • Solvent production [13]
licheniformis is suggested for microbial enhanced oil recovery
• Degradation of long chain hydrocarbon and reducing
(MEOR) in highly saline sand stone reservoir with about 40ºC
temperature value. oil viscosity [13, 15].
One of the microbial technologies under development uses
Keywords-component: MEOR; Bacillus Licheniformis; profile microbial metabolism to trigger gelation of an in-situ produced
modification; exopolymer; in situ biopolymer.
I. INTRODUCTION
0B
Bacteria and/or nutrients preferentially enter the reservoir
along high-permeability pathways. Biopolymer produced by
Utilization of microorganisms is one of the well known microbe, in those laminas plugs the pore throats, thus
methods in enhanced oil recovery operation. In recent years a decreasing the permeability in what had once been the high-
number of studies have demonstrated the potential applicability permeability zones [4]. This process may improve the sweep
of some bacteria for enhanced oil recovery [1-3]. Also, efficiency and thereby the displacement of oil initially
microbial enhanced oil recovery (MEOR) has been proposed as bypassed [16].
an effective low cost method of enhanced oil recovery
approaches. There are two major ways in which microbes may The main objective of this study was to evaluate the effect
contribute to EOR: (a) they grow in reservoir rock to produce of environmental conditions, such as temperature and salinity
gases, biosurfactants, biopolymers and other non-toxic on the capability of an exopolymer-producing bacterium,
Bacillus licheniformis in blocking the thief zone area. Also, the
Proceedings of the 3rd (2011) CUTSE International Conference
Miri, Sarawak, Malaysia, 8-9 Nov, 2011 (206 -- 917)
effect of incubation times on permeability reduction of the sand ammonium chloride were added to the nutrient solution [18,
packed column was investigated. In addition, the pore-scale 19]. Table II shows the composition of the used nutrient. The
development of reservoir pore throats and blocking the porous salinity of the nutrient solution was also adjusted to the same
media, under the optimal environmental conditions, was salinity of the injected brine. All the media were purchased
confirmed by conducting a series of 2-d glass micromodel from Merck ® Company.
experiments looking at imbibition of oily phase liquid in water-
saturated models. 2) Brine
Distilled water and four different brines with the salinity of
The microbial plugging techniques studied within this 2, 5, 7, 10% w/v of NaCl are used in this study.
paper, encompasses only biopolymer induced permeability
reductions. It means plugging causes by cells which consist of 3) The n-decane
just biopolymers, not biomass produced by the The n-decane (C10 H22 ) was used as the oily phase for
microorganisms. visual investigations in glass micromodel experiments. To trace
the n-decane movement into the etched glass micromodel, it
II. MATERIALS was dyed with Sudan red ( C24 H21 N5 ). Then, the dyed
Two types of experimental setups were considered: sand nonaqueous phase was filtered using fine filter paper to remove
pack and micromodel. In the sand pack experimental setup, the any solidified dye particles.
effects of temperature, salinity and incubation time were D. Porous Media
investigated. To visualize the bacteria plugging in porous
media, micromodel setup was used. The Bacterial strain and 1) Sand pack column:
growth conditions were identical in both experimental setups. Sand-packs with grain distribution of 300-500 µm and
absolute permeability between 60-90 Darcy and porosity
A. Bacterial strain between 44% − 48% were used in this investigation. The
In this study, the microorganism Bacillus Licheniformis sand-packed column was 30 cm in length and 2.8 cm in
(PTCC 1595), was employed. This bacterium which is diameter and was made of stainless steel. Sand pack column
commonly being used in microbial enhanced oil recovery with median grain size of 0.3-0.50 mm is used as a porous
obtained from the Persian Type Culture Collection (PTCC), media because sand is the major part of the reservoir. These
Tehran, Iran. B. licheniformis produces lipopeptides as grain sizes were chosen to limit the plugging mechanisms to
biosurfactants which could release more trapped oil in the exopolymer production and eliminate any impact of cell
small pores and necks in the porous oil media. Beside it can growth [20] .To avoid the existence of other bacteria, column,
produce polyglumatic acid (PGA) as an exopolymer in the valves and sand grains were sterilized in autoclave for an hour.
presence of sucrose [17]. We applied this bacteria strain Then they were re-sterilized with 70% ethanol.
because of its potential to produce exopolymer to use for 2) 2D Glass Micromodel
porous medium profile modification. Micromodel is a two-dimensional flow-channel network
B. Growth Conditions etched in glass to simulate fluid flow in porous media. This
The bacterial cells were prepared from frozen stock model has two distributors at the top and the bottom, the
cultures, maintained at -25°C, which were subcultured on a bottom distributor was used for cleaning the model while the
weekly basis. The bacteria were cultured anaerobically on five top one was used for injection of oleic phase. The occurrence
20ml-liquid growth mediums (Merck ® nutrient broth) for 24 of any physical phenomena in the simulated pore throats and
hrs. B. licheniformis was cultured at 34°C in growth medium bodies during fluid flow can be observed through a stereo-
(see Table I). The pH of medium was approximately 7.1. microscope recorded with a video camera and recorder.
Bacterial culture was centrifuged at 2500 RPM for 30 min and Micromodels were made by etching mirror image pattern of
then suspended in autoclaved water. The bacterial suspension pore networks onto a glass plate using hydrofluoric acid (Fig.
was placed on a magnetic stirrer and allowed to mix at room 1). Holes drilled on the lower plate serve either as inlet or
temperature for 5 min. Again, the solution was centrifuged and outlet ports. The etched plates are then sintered in a
rinsed. The bacterial solution was then suspended in water and programmable furnace. The pattern of matrix model is
placed on the magnetic stirrer to make a fresh bacterial completely random with the throats width varying randomly
solution. The optical density of the bacterial solution was between 0.1 to 0.2 mm and with random lengths. The fracture
measured by spectrophotometric analysis at 600 nm. The cell width is 1.3 mm [21].
density was determined using the direct count method and E. Permeability measurement:
adjusted at 5×108 (±107 ) cells/ ml. The salinity of the bacteria Absolute permeability of the sand-packed column was
solution was maintained at the same amount of the salinity of determined prior to the injection of the bacteria and after the
the injected brine. incubation time using the falling head method. Absolute
C. Fluids permeability, which is a measure of the ability of a porous
media to transmit fluids, is a characteristic property of porous
1) Nutrient Solution
media and it is expressed by Darcy Law:
The nutrient solution was prepared according to Brown and
Jenneman et al. [18, 19]. Since feeding of microbes with nitrate 𝑄𝜇𝐿
𝑘= (1)
and phosphate containing nutrients has been found to be 𝐴∆𝑃
effective in plugging, diammonium hydrogen phosphate and
Proceedings of the 3rd (2011) CUTSE International Conference
Miri, Sarawak, Malaysia, 8-9 Nov, 2011 (207 -- 917)
In each experiment the sand-packed column's permeability TABLE II. THE COMPOSITION OF THE NUTRIENT SOLUTION
was determined before the injection of the bacteria and after Composition Concentration, w/v
shut-in period using the falling head method [22]. In the falling Sucrose 2%
head method (Fig. 2), the following equations apply: Diammonium hydrogen phosphate,
0.01%
𝑄 = 𝑑𝑉/𝑑𝑡 (2) ((NH 4 ) 2 HPO 4 )
Ammonium chloride, (NH 4 Cl) 0.02%
𝑑𝑉 = −𝑎 × 𝑑ℎ (3)
F. Porosity measurement
III. METHODS
The dried sand packed column/micromodel was vacuumed
and saturated with degassed distilled water. Pore volume and In each experiment the sand–packed column is flushed out
porosity were determined from the change in weight as follow: with CO2 for 15 minutes to simulate a zone for an anaerobic
bacterium. Next, five pore volumes (PV) of brine (with salinity
Pore Volume ( saturated weight − dried weight ) / 0.998 of 0% – 7% NaCl, pH ≈ 7 and made from sterile water) were
φ= = × 100
Bulk Volume bulk volume (8) passed through each column at a constant flow rate of 80 ml/s
and 0.2 PV of bacterial solution ( 5 × 108 cells/ml) was
G. Sand-packed column experimental procedure: injected to the column using syringe pump. After injecting of
0.2 PV of nutrient (2% sucrose, 0.01% (NH4 )2 HPO4 ) at 10
To avoid the existence of other bacteria, column, valves
ml/s, the column was pressurized with N2 (nitrogen) to 5 bar to
and sand grains were sterilized in autoclave for an hour. Then
simulate the reservoir condition. Then it mounted horizontally
they were re-sterilized with 70% ethanol. Thereafter, the sand
packed was dried at 90°C to constant weight and subsequently in a constant temperature- controlled room (25℃ up to 55℃ ) P P
evacuated and saturated with autoclaved water. After 2 hours, and was incubated anaerobically. After the shut-in period,
the porosity was calculated from the change in weight. Initial varying from 3-21 days, the columns were flooded with 1 PV
permeability, 𝑘𝑖 , was measured as mentioned earlier. of autoclaved water and final permeability, 𝑘𝑜 , of the sand
packed was measured [21]. The experimental apparatus for the
TABLE I. THE COMPOSITION OF THE GROWTH MEDIA packed–bed system is shown in Fig. 3.
Growth medium A a
Composition
gr/lit distilled water
Sucrose 1.0
h
NH4Cl 1.0 Stand Glass
Glucose 0.0 Pipe
Peptone from meat 10.0
A
Meat infusion 5.0 Sand
Na 2 HPO 4 2.0
Solium chloride 0.3
L
For the first experiment, first the dried micromodel was reduction increases for all temperature up to the salinity of 5%
saturated with water, the bottom distributor was closed. After and then decreasing as salinity is increasing. Also, permeability
that the top distributor was filled with n-decane ( C10 H22 ) reduction at 7% and 10% NaCl are higher than the measured
colored with Sudan red as the oily phase. Transparent values at 0% and 2% NaCl. Hence, B. licheniformis is suitable
micromodel was dyed with Sudan Red (C24 H21 N5 ) to trace the for permeability reduction in highly saline soils.
decane movement. Then, after filling the distributor with the
colored decane, enough time was given to decane to move
downward, pushing the water onwards. At the last stage,
photos were taken from the model at different time, clearly
show the oily phase movement velocity.
For the second experiment, in first stage, the glass
micromodel was cleaned by acetone and dried using a stream
of N2 . In the second stage, to sterile the model, 5 PVs of 70%
ethanol was injected to the model. Then the model was died
and several pore volumes of sterile water were passed through.
Afterward, one pore volume of a mixture (50:50) of the
bacteria solution (108 cells/cc of Bacillus Licheniformis) and
the nutrient ( 4% w/v, sucrose + 0.02% w/v, (NH4 )2 HPO4
+ 0.04%, w/v NH4 Cl) was injected from the bottom of the Figure 4. Schematic Diagram of Micromodel Experimental Set-up
model till it was saturated. Subsequently the model was
incubated at 25℃ for 4 days. At the end, after the shut-in
P
temperatures is illustrated in Fig. 6 The maximum potential of permeability of the soil dramatically. The maximum reduction
B. licheniformis to produce bio-polymer has occurred at 40℃ . P
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