Abstract
In Microbial Enhanced Oil Recovery(MEOR) processes, microbe(s) and nutrients are injected into a reservoir, and the microbe increases and produces metabolites such as polymers, surfactants, gases, and/or acids in the reservoir. These metabolites help to mobilize the residual oil.
Our research group possesses a microbe Clostridium sp. TU-15A which can produce a water-soluble polymer in the molasses medium and increase the viscosity of the culture solution up to 70mPa•s(at38.3s-1) or higher by a 10 day cultivation. And it was shown by flooding experiments that this microbe was very effective for enhancing the oil recovery5).
There seems to be no comprehensive model for MEOR with a microbe producing a water-soluble polymer. In the present study, the experimental data were formulated for developing a numerical model to analyze the performance and the mechanism of MEOR with a microbe producing the water-soluble polymer. In this paper, the concept of this model is discussed and the mathematical model described.
The model consists of two phases(oil and water) and five components(oil, water, microbe, nutrient, and metabolite). The model includes almost all cesses of MEOR such as growth and death of microbe, consumption of nutrient, production of water-soluble polymer, increase of water viscosity, change of the flow profile in a reservoir, and enhancement of oil recovery.
