Comparative study of biosurfactants production by Bacillus licheniformis and Candidaalbicans for Microbial Enhanced Oil Recovery

摘要

In this study, the bacterium Bacillus licheniformis DSM= 13 strain ATCC 14580 and the yeast Candida albicans IMRU 3669were used for biosurfactants production. Surface properties of the produced biosurfactants were confirmed by determining the emulsification power as well as surface tension. The crude biosurfactants have been extracted from supernatant culture growth, the chemical structure of the produced biosurfactants were confirmed using FTIR analysis, the yields of crude biosurfactants were about 1g/l and 12g/l for Bacillus licheniformis and Candida albicans respectively. Also, the results revealed that the emulsification power has been increased up to 96% and 65 % with kerosene and the surface tension decreased from 72 to 36mN/m after 72h of incubation with Bacillus licheniformis and 45mN/m after 4 days of incubation with Candida albicans. The potential application of this bacterial species in microbial-enhanced oil recovery (MEOR) was investigated. The percent of oil recovery was 16.6 % and 8.6% for the bacterial and yeast species respectively, upon application in sand pack column designed to stimulate an oil recovery.