PMID- 18378604
OWN - NLM
STAT- MEDLINE
DCOM- 20080812
LR  - 20131121
IS  - 0077-8923 (Print)
IS  - 0077-8923 (Linking)
VI  - 1125
DP  - 2008 Mar
TI  - Microbiology to help solve our energy needs: methanogenesis from oil and the 
      impact of nitrate on the oil-field sulfur cycle.
PG  - 345-52
LID - 10.1196/annals.1419.004 [doi]
AB  - Our society depends greatly on fossil fuels, and the environmental consequences 
      of this are well known and include significant increases of the CO(2) 
      concentration in the earth's atmosphere. Although microbiology has traditionally 
      played only a minor role in fossil-fuel extraction, two novel key discoveries 
      indicate that this may change. First, the realization that oil components can be 
      converted to methane and CO(2) by methanogenic consortia in the absence of 
      electron acceptors (oxygen, nitrate, sulfate) explains how much of the world's 
      oil has been biodegraded in situ. In addition to inorganic nutrients, only water 
      is needed for these methanogenic conversions. Hence, continued methanogenic 
      biodegradation may have shaped the heavy-oil reservoirs that are so prevalent 
      today. The potential to exploit these reactions, for example, by in situ 
      gasification, is currently being actively investigated. Second, injection of 
      nitrate in oil and gas fields can lower sulfide concentrations. High sulfide 
      concentrations, caused by the action of sulfate-reducing bacteria (SRB), are 
      associated with increased risk of corrosion, reservoir plugging (through 
      precipitated sulfides), and human safety. Nitrate injection into an oil field 
      stimulates subsurface heterotrophic nitrate-reducing bacteria (hNRB) and 
      nitrate-reducing, sulfide-oxidizing bacteria (NR-SOB). Nitrite, formed by these 
      NRB by partial reduction of nitrate, is a strong and specific SRB inhibitor. 
      Nitrate injection has, therefore, promise in positively controlling the oil-field 
      sulfur cycle. There is now more interest in and potential to apply petroleum 
      microbiology than there has been in the past, allowing microbiologists to 
      contribute to a sustainable energy future.
FAU - Grigoryan, Alexander
AU  - Grigoryan A
AD  - Department of Biological Sciences, University of Calgary, 2500 University Dr. NW, 
      Calgary, Alberta, T2N 1N4, Canada.
FAU - Voordouw, Gerrit
AU  - Voordouw G
LA  - eng
PT  - Journal Article
PT  - Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't
PL  - United States
TA  - Ann N Y Acad Sci
JT  - Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences
JID - 7506858
RN  - 0 (Fossil Fuels)
RN  - 0 (Nitrates)
RN  - 70FD1KFU70 (Sulfur)
RN  - 7U1EE4V452 (Carbon Monoxide)
RN  - OP0UW79H66 (Methane)
SB  - IM
MH  - Anaerobiosis
MH  - Carbon Monoxide
MH  - *Fossil Fuels
MH  - Kinetics
MH  - Methane
MH  - Models, Theoretical
MH  - Nitrates
MH  - *Sulfur
EDAT- 2008/04/02 09:00
MHDA- 2008/08/13 09:00
CRDT- 2008/04/02 09:00
PHST- 2008/04/02 09:00 [pubmed]
PHST- 2008/08/13 09:00 [medline]
PHST- 2008/04/02 09:00 [entrez]
AID - 1125/1/345 [pii]
AID - 10.1196/annals.1419.004 [doi]
PST - ppublish
SO  - Ann N Y Acad Sci. 2008 Mar;1125:345-52. doi: 10.1196/annals.1419.004.