Numerical simulation of impact of biopolymer production and microbial competition between species on performance of MEOR process

Abstract

Abstract In this work we look at MEOR processes including biopolymer production and microbial competition. We have simulated a two-phase system containing of oil, water, nutrients, metabolite (biopolymer) and biofilm using the Matlab Reservoir Simulation Toolbox (MRST) package. Different mechanisms including water viscosity improvement by the action of biopolymer and biofilm formation due to adsorption of bacteria was studied. The effect of microbial competition due to presence of indigenous bacteria on the performance of MEOR process was also studied. Results shows that the presence of biopolymer improves the oil recovery in comparison with pure waterflooding. The biopolymer improves the recovery by creation of a traveling oil bank within the reservoir. Further analysis is performed to evaluate the influence of a high permeability thief zone to the model. The presence of indigenous microbes has been revealed to limit the MEOR displacement efficiency in both MEOR and thief zone simulations.