Biocatalytic processes for increased oil recovery: adapting microbial long-chain alkane degradation to reservoir-like conditions

Today more than 50% of the oil discovered on the Norwegian continental shelf is, for economical reasons, unrecoverable using conventional technologies. Biocatalytic processes for increased oil recovery provide a promising tool to circumvent the use of exp ensive, environmentally unfriendly, recovery-enhancing chemicals. In the proposed project we suggest a rational approach to the development of bacterial strains suitable for biocatalytic processes for increased recovery and facilitated handling of heavy o il from reservoirs found on the Norwegian continental shelf. This will be achieved by the biocatalytic degradation of long-chain alkanes (LCA), which contribute significantly to the high viscosity of heavy oil and recovery problems in cold climate. The pr oject will focus on the isolation of reservoir-adapted microbial strains, which will then be optimized for effective LCA degradation using genetic methods. A library of thermophilic strains will be established and screened for LCA-degrading bacteria. Iden tified strains will be tested for accessibility by genetic tools, and novel genes involved in alkane degradation will be cloned and characterized. In parallel, an enzyme system recently identified by our group and involved in LCA degradation in the bacter ium Acinetobacter venetianus, will be investigated in detail and adapted to thermophilic conditions using directed evolution in a thermophilic model system. Enzymes from both approaches will be transferred to selected isolated host strains, naturally adap ted to reservoir-like conditions, in order to boost their LCA degrading potential. The functional expression of the thermostable enzymes for LCA degradation will be evaluated in a simulated biocatalytic process under oil reservoir-like conditions. Using t his approach we will take an important step towards implementation of bacterial strains in biocatalytic processes for the oil industry.