Crude oil is a dense, dark fluid containing many varieties of complex hydrocarbon molecules, along with organic impurities containing sulfur, nitrogen, and heavy metals. The hydrocarbons are the raw material for the entire petroleum industry, providing the feedstock for refineries and the basis for everything from gasoline to plastic.
Natural variation in oil's characteristics among different regions - or even within the same oil field - creates different grades that range from heavy oil with high concentrations of large hydrocarbon molecules to so-called lighter, "sweeter" crude with smaller hydrocarbons.
The heavier a crude oil is, the more difficult a challenge it presents in extracting it from the ground and purifying it into end products. Crude oil's physical properties, such as viscosity, and its chemical impurities affect the cost of recovery and refining, and the amount of waste produced in processing. New air-pollution regulations have tightened the restrictions on the amount of impurities, such as sulfur, that can remain in petroleum products used as fuel. So, oil companies have focused on bringing up the lighter oil and leaving denser oil under ground.
But industry predictions show that the supply of light crudes is dwindling, leaving an increasing proportion of heavy grades for future use. In fact, most of the Western Hemisphere's remaining oil is heavy crude, creating a strong strategic incentive to find new ways to extract and use it.
Conventional technology for extracting petroleum typically leaves behind more than 60 percent of the original oil. Also, today's technology is not cost-effective for the lowest-grade crudes. So, Brookhaven scientists have worked for several years to develop bacterial biocatalysts that can withstand the extreme temperature, pressure and harsh conditions of oil wells while chemically and physically altering crude oil.
The biocatalysts are based on bacterial strains that have been i
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Contact: Kara Villamil
karav@bnl.gov
516-344-5658
DOE/Brookhaven National Laboratory
22-Apr-1999