Investigation of Paenibacillus alvei ARN63 ability for biodemulsifier production: Medium optimization to break heavy crude oil emulsion

Colloids and Surfaces B: Biointerfaces, Volume 109, 1 September 2013, Pages 244–252
Investigation of Paenibacillus alvei ARN63 ability for biodemulsifier production: Medium optimization to break heavy crude oil emulsion
S.Sh. Amirabadi (a), A. Jahanmiria, M.R. Rahimpour (a), B. Rafie nia (a), P. Darvishi (b), A. Niazi (c)
a School of Chemical and Petroleum Engineering, Department of Chemical Engineering, Shiraz University, Shiraz, Iran
b Department of Chemical Engineering, School of Engineering, Yasouj University, Yasouj, Iran
c Department of Biotechnology, Shiraz University, Shiraz, Iran
Abstract
Presents results of a study of the demulsifying performance of Paenibacillus alvei ARN63 (P. alvei), as a biodemulsifier-producing bacterium, for breaking water-in-heavy crude oil emulsion. The produced lipopeptide biodemulsifier demonstrated its potential use in the petroleum industry as an environmentally friendly and non-toxic material.
Researchers investigate the impacts of parameters such as temperature, pH, carbon source and carbon concentration at a constant agitation speed of 180 rpm and with ammonium sulfate as the sole nitrogen source to optimize the biodemulsifier production. Several normal paraffin compounds, vegetable oils and motor oil revealed the ability to be used as the carbon source for synthesis of biodemulsifier. The best biodemulsifier production was obtained employing motor oil as the carbon source with a concentration of 42.5 g/l at 37 °C and pH 7.0 after 72 h of incubation.
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