Application of Organic Surfactants to Recover Hydrocarbons from Oil Sludges

Document Type : Original Article

Authors

1 Department of Chemistry, Petroleum University of Technology, Abadan, Iran

2 Research Center of Petroleum University of Technology, Abadan, Iran

Abstract

Biosurfactant can be produced from various substrates, mainly renewable resources such as vegetable oils,
distillery and dairy wastes. The Biosurfactant was a rhamnolipid-type and had a good foaming, emulsifying
and antimicrobial activities. Biosurfactants can also be involved in microbial enhanced oil recovery (MEOR).
MEOR methods are used to recover oil remaining in reservoirs after primary (mechanical) and secondary
(physical) recovery procedures. The objective of this processes is oil separation of hydrocarbons from oil
sludge by biosurfactant. The first step is about isolation pseudomonas bacteria from polluted soil and sludge,
was capable producing biosurfactant to emulsify oil. In the second part investigate the effect of various
experimental conditions, such as solution pH, biosurfactant concentration and salinity in separation process.


Keywords