Microbial treatment of waxy crude oils for mitigation of wax precipitation

Abstract The precipitation of wax in crude oil during transportation reduces the internal diameter and eventually blocks the pipeline and may also result in fluid composition changes. In this study we report on the isolation of six biosurfactant producing bacterial cultures from local oil contaminated seawater sediments. Two strains, a Pseudomonas species and another was Actinomyces species, grew fastest and exhibited high emulsification activity. The gas chromatographic analysis of crude oil treated with these bacteria showed a decrease in heavy hydrocarbon fractions and increase in C 15 –C 20 fractions. The physical properties (Viscosity and Wax Appearance Temperature) of Sarir crude oil showed a reduction in wax appearance temperature and viscosity of the crude oil. Treatment Pseudomonas and Actinomyces species may be an effective method for the biodegradation of heavy paraffinic hydrocarbon leading to an improvement in crude oil properties.

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