Affiliation: | 1.Department of Chemical Engineering, Faculty of Engineering,University of Tehran,Tehran;2.Research Center for New Technologies in Life Science Engineering,University of Tehran,Tehran;3.Biotechnology Center,Iranian Research Organization for Science and Technology,Tehran;4.Department of Chemical Engineering,Amirkabir University of Technology,Tehran,Iran |
Abstract: | A rhamnolipid producing bacterium,Pseudomonas aeruginosa HR was isolated from south of Iranian oil wells. In the previous study, effects of main factors of cultivation on production of biosurfactant by this strain were evaluated and their optimized values were determined. In the present paper, the ability of produced biosurfactant in oil recovery was investigated. For this purpose, its affect on enhanced oil recovery in sand pack and core holder obtained from oil wells was evaluated. It was found that the maximum oil recovery in saturated sand pack column and in saturated core holder of crude oil were 23.6 and 64%, respectively. Then, in core test mathematical model was proposed by considering interactions between given parameters. Furthermore, dependence of residual oil recovery on the process of core washing during injection of biosurfactant was investigated. Finally, capillary desaturation curve was compared with core flood data. |