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PARAFFIN CONTROL IN OIL WELLS USING ANAEROBIC MICROORGANISMS
Impact/Purpose:
Paraffins that form waxy deposits upon removal from reservoirs have been implicated in numerous oil field problems leading to reductions in oil recovery. In oil reservoirs, anaerobic conditions usually predominate. Thus the addition of anaerobic microbial populations that can definitively biodegrade paraffins under such conditions may be of great use to treat wax accumulations. Our aim is to evaluate the feasibility of using anaerobic microbial consortia to biodegrade waxy hydrocarbons in order to ameliorate paraffin accumulations in oil reservoirs.
Description:
Enrichment and monitoring of the above-described cultures for the ability to degrade waxy paraffins under anaerobic conditions will continue. Experiments will be conducted to determine the nutritional requirements of some of the enrichment cultures to improve growth and deduce salinity tolerance. In the next phase of the project, enrichments will be challenged with field paraffins and paraffinic oils. Some cultures will also be established under more thermophilic conditions using field samples such as oil production waters. The concentration of paraffins will be assessed in addition to measures of electron-accepting processes.