One of the ways to ‘green’ oil production is to replace chemically synthesized surfactants with biosurfactants that are products of microbial synthesis. Despite on many data available on biousurfactants tolerance to extreme environmental conditions (salinity, pH) and their ability to reduce the surface tension and to emulsify crude oil, the information on their effectiveness in real conditions or in enhanced oil recovery (EOR) methods simulation remains poor. In this work, biosurfactants of rhamnolipid class produced by Pseudomonas fluorescens PCS-20 were obtained and characterized, and their effectiveness was evaluated in a model experiment with sand packed column in comparison with a chemical surfactant. It has been established that the yield of the acid-precipitated fraction of the biosurfactant followed by solvent extraction with a mixture of chloroform-methanol (volume to volume ratio – 1:1) is 102 mg/l. Emulsification index E24 was estimated to 75%. To simulate tertiary oil recovery, sand packed columns with a volume of 200 ml were sequentially filled with brine and high-viscosity oil from the Romashkinskoye field (the Republic of Tatarstan). The pore volume was 53 ml, the original oil in place volume (OOIP) was 45.5 ml. The secondary recovery using brine was estimated to be 42% from OOIP. When using 0.1 and 0.5% biosurfactant solutions, additional oil recovery was 28 and 31%, respectively. For a chemical surfactant in similar concentrations, the increase in oil recovery did not differ statistically. Thus, rhamnolipids produced by P. fluorescens PCS-20 may be considered as an environmentally friendly alternative to chemical surfactants in the production of high-viscosity oil.
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