MEOR (Microbial Enhanced Oil Recovery) Technology
For enhanced oil recovery from stripper wells using microbes.
TERI and IRS, ONGC have jointly cultured a set of microbes that could survive temperatures as high as 90ºC, air pressure up to 140 kilograms persquare centimeter, and strong salinity with concentration levels ranging from 4% to 8%. Techniques used earlier for oil recovery employed microbes that could bear temperatures only up to 65ºC. TERI and IRS, ONGC cultured these stronger bacteria in simulated conditions of oil wells complete with high temperature, high pressure, and heavy salt concentration. The product was successfully tested in oil wells at Ahmedabad and Mehsana Assets and the rest, as they say, is history.
One of the biggest and most frequent threats for any oil refinery is oil sludge. There are 16 refineries in India and all create toxic waste. Estimates suggest that about 20 000 tonnes of petroleum sludge is generated every year. At present, refineries have to construct polymer-lined pits with a special leach ate collection system to prevent the dumped sludge from leaking into the earth and groundwater. A pit costs about 10 million rupees and each refinery needs several such pits. With more refineries being set up, space is always a constraint. What's more, a pit gets filled up in three to four years
WDP (Wax Deposition Prevention) / PDB(Paraffin Deposition Bacteria)
Oil well tubing and surface pipelines for the prevention and treatment of wax deposition in oil wells.
Paraffin depositions cause a loss of billions of dollars per year worldwide due to enormous cost of prevention and remediation, reduced or deferred production, well shut-in, pipeline replacements and/or abandonment, equipment failures, extra power requirement and increased man power needs.
Conventional technique to control paraffin deposition in the oil tubing was mechanical scrapping of tubing. Invariably scrapper used to trap in wax inside the tubing and then difficult to remove the scrapper from oil well tubing which cause damage of well and then work over job is required which is a highly expensive and plagued with other associated problems. Steam, chemicals and solvents are used to dissolve the paraffin deposition are also expensive, hazardous environmentally as well as fire hazard. Even, sometimes pipelines get burst due to pressure build up during the above process.