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Crude-oil biodegradation via methanogenesis in subsurface petroleum reservoirs

Author

Listed:
  • D. M. Jones

    (School of Civil Engineering and Geosciences, University of Newcastle, Newcastle upon Tyne, NE1 7RU, UK)

  • I. M. Head

    (School of Civil Engineering and Geosciences, University of Newcastle, Newcastle upon Tyne, NE1 7RU, UK)

  • N. D. Gray

    (School of Civil Engineering and Geosciences, University of Newcastle, Newcastle upon Tyne, NE1 7RU, UK)

  • J. J. Adams

    (Petroleum Reservoir Group, University of Calgary, Calgary, Alberta, T2A 1N4, Canada)

  • A. K. Rowan

    (School of Civil Engineering and Geosciences, University of Newcastle, Newcastle upon Tyne, NE1 7RU, UK)

  • C. M. Aitken

    (School of Civil Engineering and Geosciences, University of Newcastle, Newcastle upon Tyne, NE1 7RU, UK)

  • B. Bennett

    (Petroleum Reservoir Group, University of Calgary, Calgary, Alberta, T2A 1N4, Canada)

  • H. Huang

    (Petroleum Reservoir Group, University of Calgary, Calgary, Alberta, T2A 1N4, Canada)

  • A. Brown

    (School of Civil Engineering and Geosciences, University of Newcastle, Newcastle upon Tyne, NE1 7RU, UK)

  • B. F. J. Bowler

    (School of Civil Engineering and Geosciences, University of Newcastle, Newcastle upon Tyne, NE1 7RU, UK)

  • T. Oldenburg

    (Petroleum Reservoir Group, University of Calgary, Calgary, Alberta, T2A 1N4, Canada)

  • M. Erdmann

    (Norsk Hydro Oil & Energy, R&D Centre, Bergen, PO 7190, N-5020 Bergen, Norway)

  • S. R. Larter

    (School of Civil Engineering and Geosciences, University of Newcastle, Newcastle upon Tyne, NE1 7RU, UK
    Petroleum Reservoir Group, University of Calgary, Calgary, Alberta, T2A 1N4, Canada)

Abstract

'Difficult' oil could be a gas More than half of the world's oil inventory consists of biodegraded heavy oil and tar sand deposits. Recovery of oil from these sources is complicated and expensive. Recent findings suggest that anaerobic bacteria may cause this hydrocarbon degradation, but the actual degradation pathway occurring in oil reservoirs remains obscure. Using a combination of laboratory oil degradation experiments and analysis of oilfield samples, it is now shown that the dominant process of subsurface biodegradation is methanogenesis, involving anaerobic degradation of oil hydrocarbons to produce methane. This suggests an alternative way of exploiting these 'difficult' oilfields: by accelerating the natural hydrocarbon degradation process, it may be possible to recover energy as methane, rather than conventionally as oil.

Suggested Citation

  • D. M. Jones & I. M. Head & N. D. Gray & J. J. Adams & A. K. Rowan & C. M. Aitken & B. Bennett & H. Huang & A. Brown & B. F. J. Bowler & T. Oldenburg & M. Erdmann & S. R. Larter, 2008. "Crude-oil biodegradation via methanogenesis in subsurface petroleum reservoirs," Nature, Nature, vol. 451(7175), pages 176-180, January.
    • Handle: RePEc:nat:nature:v:451:y:2008:i:7175:d:10.1038_nature06484
    DOI: 10.1038/nature06484
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    Cited by:

    1. Tamara Nazina & Diyana Sokolova & Denis Grouzdev & Ekaterina Semenova & Tamara Babich & Salimat Bidzhieva & Dmitriy Serdukov & Dmitriy Volkov & Konstantin Bugaev & Alexey Ershov & Marat Khisametdinov , 2019. "The Potential Application of Microorganisms for Sustainable Petroleum Recovery from Heavy Oil Reservoirs," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(1), pages 1-23, December.
    2. Ma, Lei & Zhou, Lei & Mbadinga, Serge Maurice & Gu, Ji-Dong & Mu, Bo-Zhong, 2018. "Accelerated CO2 reduction to methane for energy by zero valent iron in oil reservoir production waters," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 147(C), pages 663-671.
    3. Tiantian Yu & Lin Fu & Yinzhao Wang & Yijing Dong & Yifan Chen & Gunter Wegener & Lei Cheng & Fengping Wang, 2024. "Thermophilic Hadarchaeota grow on long-chain alkanes in syntrophy with methanogens," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 15(1), pages 1-10, December.
    4. Liyun An & Xinwu Liu & Jianwei Wang & Jinbo Xu & Xiaoli Chen & Xiaonan Liu & Bingxin Hu & Yong Nie & Xiao-Lei Wu, 2024. "Global diversity and ecological functions of viruses inhabiting oil reservoirs," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 15(1), pages 1-16, December.
    5. Sun, Hangyu & Yang, Ziyi & Liu, Guangqing & Zhang, Yi & Tong, Yen Wah & Wang, Wen, 2023. "Double-edged effect of tar on anaerobic digestion: Equivalent method and modeling investigation," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 277(C).

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