Experimental investigation of the performance of biosurfactant to wettability alteration and interfacial tension (IFT) reduction in microbial enhanced oil recovery (MEOR)

Abstract

In this Study, the biosurfactant production potential of Enterobacter Cloacae and Enterobacter Hormaechei microorganisms that were isolated from one of the oil reservoir formation water located in the southwest of Iran was explored. The produced biosurfactant caused substantial surface tension reduction of the growth medium and interfacial tension reduction between oil and brine to 31 and 3.2 mN/m from the original value of 72 and 29 mN/m respectively. In addition, the impact of other parameters such as temperature and salinity were investigated by performing appropriate experiments. The results show that the wettability alteration toward neutrally wet conditions could be the dominant mechanism on the improvement of oil recovery and the adsorption of bacteria cells and forming biofilm was the main contributor to this wettability alteration.