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Research
Quanhong Xue
Northwest Agriculture and Forestry University
Corresponding Author
ORCiD: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-6886-9234
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This work is licensed under a CC BY 4.0 License. Read Full License
Background: The progressive depletion of light crude oils has led to increased focus on efficient exploitation of heavy oil reserves to meet energy demand. Microbial enhanced oil recovery makes a substantial contribution to the recovery of heavy oils; however, most methods use bacteria, with less attention paid to the potential of fungi. In this study, we investigated the efficiency of fungal extracellular enzymes in biotransformation and biodegradation of heavy oil fractions into light compounds and the feasibility of the use of such enzyme preparations in enhanced oil recovery.
Results: Two fungal strains of Aspergillus spp., isolated from bitumen samples, showed good growth on plates of mineral salts medium with heavy oil as the sole carbon source. The fungal extracellular enzymes, with dehydrogenase and catechol 2,3-dioxygenase activities, exhibited the ability to biodegrade heavy oil. The biodegradation process was coupled with abundant production of gases, mainly CO 2 and H 2 . Gas chromatography analysis revealed a significant redistribution of n -alkanes in the heavy oil after treatment with fungal enzyme preparations, which resulted in an increase in individual n -alkanes. The viscosity of the heavy oil was decreased 66.33% by fungal enzymatic degradation.
Conclusions: These results demonstrate the potential of fungal extracellular enzymes from Aspergillus spp. for applications in enhanced heavy oil recovery, including biotransformation of heavy to lighter crude oil and byproduct biogas formation.
Keywords
Heavy oil recovery, Fungal enzyme preparation, Enzymatic degradation, Oil viscosity, Biogas production
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This is a preprint, a preliminary version of a manuscript that has not completed peer review at a journal. Research Square does not conduct peer review prior to posting preprints. The posting of a preprint on this server should not be interpreted as an endorsement of its validity or suitability for dissemination as established information or for guiding clinical practice.
Research
Quanhong Xue
Northwest Agriculture and Forestry University
Corresponding Author
ORCiD: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-6886-9234
Badges
Prescreen
This manuscript passed our Prescreen assessment
Complete author information
Appropriate declaration statements
Potential risks to human health
Prescreen
History
CURRENT STATUS: Posted
Version 2
Posted 04 Jun, 2020
No community comments so far
No comments provided
Metrics
Comments: 0
PDF Downloads: ...
HTML Views: ...
Subject Areas
Applied & Industrial Microbiology
License:
This work is licensed under a CC BY 4.0 License. Read Full License
Background: The progressive depletion of light crude oils has led to increased focus on efficient exploitation of heavy oil reserves to meet energy demand. Microbial enhanced oil recovery makes a substantial contribution to the recovery of heavy oils; however, most methods use bacteria, with less attention paid to the potential of fungi. In this study, we investigated the efficiency of fungal extracellular enzymes in biotransformation and biodegradation of heavy oil fractions into light compounds and the feasibility of the use of such enzyme preparations in enhanced oil recovery.
Results: Two fungal strains of Aspergillus spp., isolated from bitumen samples, showed good growth on plates of mineral salts medium with heavy oil as the sole carbon source. The fungal extracellular enzymes, with dehydrogenase and catechol 2,3-dioxygenase activities, exhibited the ability to biodegrade heavy oil. The biodegradation process was coupled with abundant production of gases, mainly CO 2 and H 2 . Gas chromatography analysis revealed a significant redistribution of n -alkanes in the heavy oil after treatment with fungal enzyme preparations, which resulted in an increase in individual n -alkanes. The viscosity of the heavy oil was decreased 66.33% by fungal enzymatic degradation.
Conclusions: These results demonstrate the potential of fungal extracellular enzymes from Aspergillus spp. for applications in enhanced heavy oil recovery, including biotransformation of heavy to lighter crude oil and byproduct biogas formation.
Figure 1
Figure 2
Figure 3
Figure 4
Figure 5
This is a list of supplementary files associated with this preprint. Click to download.
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