Estudo da recuperação avançada de petróleo através da injeção do biossurfactante ramnolipídeo produzido a partir de pseudomonas aeruginosa

Abstract

The continuous need for increased production of hydrocarbons makes the development of techniques to produce more oil from reservoirs a matter of fundamental importance. In that context, the enhanced oil recovery (EOR) through surfactant flooding works by lowering the interfacial tension between water and oil, improving the displacement of the latter out of the reservoir. The present work aims to characterize the rhamnolipid biosurfactant, produced from a strain of the Pseudomonas aeruginosa bacteria, and to assess its utilization in the EOR process, using synthetic sandstone as reservoir rocks. The rhamnolipid characterization involved the determination of its critical micelle concentration (c.m.c.), and also the behaviour caused by the influence of pH and salinity over it. The EOR process included three oil samples, with API degree range of 25-30, and three biosurfactant concentrations, of 30, 50 and 100% above the cmc. The results demonstrated that biosurfactant flooding not only presents itself as a sustainable alternative to synthetic surfactants by being biodegradable, but is also capable of increasing the recovery factor of the oil production process post water injection, presenting a range of enhanced recovery factors from 1.6 up to 9.3%, displaying better results when heavier, more viscous oil samples are used and for higher rhamnolipid concentrarions.