Help of bacteria for oil extraction

2008/01/01 Elhuyar Zientzia Iturria: Elhuyar aldizkaria

• Energia

Oil extraction is very difficult when there is little oil left in the pit. Normally the oil is very viscous and compact. To make the most of it, engineers try to transform this oil into methane and extract this gas, but the techniques to do so are expensive and polluting. However, better and cleaner techniques could be applied: Canadian researchers have proposed to use bacteria to convert viscous oil into methane.

These bacteria metabolize hydrocarbons, including these viscous compounds of oil. It is an anaerobic process, that is, it is not produced through oxygen, so the product of metabolic reactions is not carbon dioxide, but methane. Researchers have proposed to increase the metabolic activity of bacteria by using fertilizers. This involves the injection of phosphates and some vitamins in the pits, and the bacteria are thought to form methane faster than naturally.

The tests carried out in the laboratory have given very good results, but it is necessary to test in the oil fields themselves, which they hope to carry out for 2009.