TY - JOUR
T1 - Evaluating the potential of natural surfactants in the petroleum industry
T2 - The case of hydrophobins
AU - Blesic, Marijana
AU - DIchiarante, Valentina
AU - Milani, Roberto
AU - Linder, Markus
AU - Metrangolo, Pierangelo
N1 - SHP: Bioeconomy
PY - 2018/2/23
Y1 - 2018/2/23
N2 - Enhancing oil recovery from currently available reservoirs is a major issue for petroleum companies. Among the possible strategies towards this, chemical flooding through injection of surfactants into the wells seems to be particularly promising, thanks to their ability to reduce oil/water interfacial tension that promotes oil mobilization. Environmental concerns about the use of synthetic surfactants led to a growing interest in their replacement with surfactants of biological origin, such as lipopeptides and glycolipids produced by several microorganisms. Hydrophobins are small amphiphilic proteins produced by filamentous fungi with high surface activity and good emulsification properties, and may represent a novel sustainable tool for this purpose. We report here a thorough study of their stability and emulsifying performance towards a model hydrocarbon mixture, in conditions that mimic those of real oil reservoirs (high salinity and high temperature). Due to the moderate interfacial tension reduction induced in such conditions, the application of hydrophobins in enhanced oil recovery techniques does not appear feasible at the moment, at least in absence of co-surfactants. On the other hand, the obtained results showed the potential of hydrophobins in promoting the formation of a gel-like emulsion 'barrier' at the oil/water interface.
AB - Enhancing oil recovery from currently available reservoirs is a major issue for petroleum companies. Among the possible strategies towards this, chemical flooding through injection of surfactants into the wells seems to be particularly promising, thanks to their ability to reduce oil/water interfacial tension that promotes oil mobilization. Environmental concerns about the use of synthetic surfactants led to a growing interest in their replacement with surfactants of biological origin, such as lipopeptides and glycolipids produced by several microorganisms. Hydrophobins are small amphiphilic proteins produced by filamentous fungi with high surface activity and good emulsification properties, and may represent a novel sustainable tool for this purpose. We report here a thorough study of their stability and emulsifying performance towards a model hydrocarbon mixture, in conditions that mimic those of real oil reservoirs (high salinity and high temperature). Due to the moderate interfacial tension reduction induced in such conditions, the application of hydrophobins in enhanced oil recovery techniques does not appear feasible at the moment, at least in absence of co-surfactants. On the other hand, the obtained results showed the potential of hydrophobins in promoting the formation of a gel-like emulsion 'barrier' at the oil/water interface.
KW - biosurfactant
KW - emulsion
KW - enhanced oil recovery (EOR)
KW - hydrophobin
KW - ICGC-6
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85037649061&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1515/pac-2017-0703
DO - 10.1515/pac-2017-0703
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:85037649061
SN - 0033-4545
VL - 90
SP - 305
EP - 314
JO - Pure and Applied Chemistry
JF - Pure and Applied Chemistry
IS - 2
ER -