A New Direction in Microbially Enhanced Oil Recovery (MEOR)
Samples are taken of oil reservoir fluids. Microbes within these fluids are studied and analyzed so that precise nutrients can be designed for specific species of microbes present in each reservoir.
With this knowledge, highly specialized medical grade nutrients are formulated and injected into the reservoir. Trillions of targeted subterranean colonies of microbes feed on the nutrients. Microbes are so small that 5 million microbes can occupy the head of a pin. The nutrients create a dramatic response in the microbe colony. The nutrients make the microbes multiply by approximately 100 – 1000 times, grow larger, then shrink dramatically. The nutrients create a change in the microbes' skin structure which becomes oily, and this induces the microbes to seek and attach to oil droplets—a condition known as oleophilic [oil loving]. Once they have been stimulated, hundreds of trillions of microbes work to attach themselves to oil droplets. The microbe’s skin is now induced to naturally seek an oil coating and is attracted to the oil droplets trapped inside the pore spaces of the oil reservoir.
Trillions of microbes now bathe in and attach to the trillions of oil droplets that were “trapped” inside the pore spaces. These microbes are now .1 to .2 microns in size. Microbes have their own propulsion system (flagella) so that they can get to places in the pore matrix under their own power where no other secondary recovery substance (water, vapor or a chemical agent) which depends on injection pressure can penetrate.
The microbe activity agitates, separates and breaks up the oil droplets into very small droplets which are now released from the rock face. This oil is now for the first time recoverable by conventional means.
The microbes coating the surface of the oil droplets create a new surface geometry (microscopic hills and valleys) phenomenon that causes a cohesion of the water molecules to the oil droplets. Some of the released oil attaches to water molecules via the attached microbes and travels through the oil formation towards the production well. This “attached” combination of oil, water and microbes as it travels through high permeability sections of the reservoir is agitated and rapidly mixed and forms under this stress a natural emulsion that blocks off these high permeability sections (thief zones). Because of thief zones, water in the reservoir (both naturally occurring and from producer-induced water floods) eventually is channeled through this path of least resistance and does not push out or sweep into other areas of the reservoir to contact oil. With the emulsions blocking off these thief zones, injection water can now sweep into other areas of the reservoir and contact significant amounts of oil and move it toward the production wells.
In summary, as a result of the Titan Process: 1) Significant amounts of trapped, normally unrecoverable oil within the pore spaces are dislodged and released; and 2) thief zones are blocked allowing for a more efficient flood pattern, sweeping into new oil-bearing areas of the reservoir, pushing oil toward the production well.
