Microbial Enhanced Oil Recovery: Advances in Theory and Sustainable Applications
A special issue of Sustainability (ISSN 2071-1050). This special issue belongs to the section "Energy Sustainability".
Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (31 March 2020) | Viewed by 12775
Special Issue Editors
Interests: energy and environment; enhanced oil recovery; microbial enhanced oil recovery; biofuels; surfactants; biosurfactants; biopolymers; gas transport; bioremediation; microbial biotechnology
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals
Interests: enhanced oil recovery; enhanced gas recovery; carbon capture; utilization and storage; unconventional oil/gas production; drilling mud; shale oil/gas production; micromodel; simulation; core flooding experiment
Interests: molecular biology and microbiology; methanogens; microbial, enhanced oil recovery; petroleum microbiology; bioremediation
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals
Special Issue Information
Dear Colleagues,
Several renewable-energy based technologies have been developed and proposed to reduce our reliance on crude oil and its derivatives. However, still it lacks the cost-competitive edge with fossil fuels. Thus crude oil/fossil fuels and its derivatives still plays an immense role in day-to-day life. This leads petroleum industries for continuous-improved crude oil production and upgrading of oil recovery processes to ensure sustainable and economical outcomes in effective manner. Over the years different types of enhanced oil recovery (EOR) techniques are developed to economically improve oil extraction and recovery yields. EOR processes are targeted for ~50% of the oil which still remains trapped in the reservoir after primary and secondary recovery stages. Different EOR technologies are employed worldwide, amongst which, chemicals based technologies are widely employed due to ease of application and availability. However, Microbial EOR (MEOR) processes are gaining attention due to their environmental friendly nature, ease and competitive cost of applications in petroleum industry. The concept of MEOR was first introduced in 1926, followed by few initial studies till 1940, and in 1954, the first MEOR field test was reported from the USA. Since then, an enormous amount of research has been carried out both at laboratory scale and several successful field-trials are also reported. Our understanding and the know-how of MEOR process vastly improved from contributions and team-work by geologists, microbiologists, engineers, environmental scientists, and others in recent years. Past few years were quite turbulent for petroleum industry with volatile oil prices. However, such desperate times always bring opportunities for improvements to ensure sustainable and effective processes. Apart from advanced chemical analytical techniques, integration of information technology (IT) and OMICS (molecular biology techniques) played an important role in advancements of understanding MEOR mechanisms, simulation/predictions and field scale applications.
The scope of this special issue of Sustainability is to cover and highlight several aspects of environmental-friendly MEOR processes, with a focus on theory and practices at both laboratory and field scales, current scientific knowledge and understanding of the process so far, economic bottlenecks and novel solutions for future implementations.
Dr. Sanket J. Joshi
Dr. Yuichi Sugai
Dr. Tamara Nazina
Guest Editors
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Keywords
- in-situ MEOR
- ex-situ MEOR
- extremophiles for MEOR
- microbial products (biosurfactants, biopolymers)
- microbial permeability profile modification: selective plugging
- OMICS tools for identification of useful/harmful microbial flora
- sulfate-reducing bacteria (SRBs) and field studies
- production and application economics
- mathematical modeling and simulation studies
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