Revista de Petróleo y Biotecnología Ambiental

Abstracto

A Potent Biosurfactant Producing Bacterial Strain for Application in Enhanced Oil Recovery Applications

Gamil A. Amin

The capability of hydrocarbon utilizing bacteria to produce biosurfantants was investigated. Out of 38 spore forming alkane utilizing bacteria isolated from Jeddah Refinery facilities, a potent surfactin producing bacterium was isolated, by enrichment technique. The isolate was purified and partially characterized as members of the genus Bacillus and was designated as BDCC-TUSA-3. It was able to biodegrade 11.0 g of n-hexadecane and consume more than 82% in 55 h, but surfactin was not detected. When grown on Maldex-15, a cheap by-product recovered during manufacturing of high fructose syrup from corn starch, up to 4650 mg.l -1 of surfactin was produced in 40 h. The kinetic characterization, for cell growth and surfactin production from Maldex-15 was determined. A maximum specific growth rate of 0.462 h -1 , conversion efficiency of 98.8% and volumetric reactor productivity of 155 g surfactin .l -1 .h -1 were achieved. The obtained results suggest that BDCC-TUSA-3 strain can be of great importance as a feasible MEOR agent particularly in nearly exhausted oil fields.