Author(s): Song Shaofu, Zhang Zhongzhi, Li Shuyuan
Pages: 23-29,61
Year: 2004 Issue:  4
Journal: PETROLEUM SCIENCE
Keyword:  Microbial enhanced oil recovery (MEOR); screening process; mechanism of enhancing oil recovery; simulation device; simulation process; polymerase chain reaction (PCR);
Abstract: This paper describes a simple, easy process for screening microorganisms, and introduces a laboratory simulation device and process of microbial enhanced oil recovery (MEOR), which is a necessary research step for trial in oilfields. The MEOR mechanism and the influence of adsorption, diffusion, metabolism, nutrition, porosity, and permeability are analyzed. The research indicates that different microbes have different efficiencies in EOR and that different culture types play different roles in EOR. The effect of syrup is better than that of glucose, and larger porosity is favorable to the reproduction and growth of microbes, thereby improving the oil recovery. Using crude oil as a single carbon source is more appreciable because of the decrease in cost of oil recovery. At the end of this paper, the development of polymerase chain reaction (PCR) for the future is discussed.