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Demulsification capabilities of a Microbacterium species for breaking water-in-crude oil emulsions


Hossein Salehizadeh
Aida Ranjbar
Kevin Kennedy

Abstract

A bacterium strain belonging to Microbacterium sp., isolated from oily sludge samples of Siri Island in the south of Iran, produced a strong, thermo stable microbial demulsifier (Yx/s=0.663, Yp/s=0.204, productivity=0.185 g L-1 h-1) on glucose as a sole carbon source supplemented with yeast extract. The optimum values of temperature, inoculum concentration, pH and culture age for microbial demulsifier production were 25°C, 108 CFU mL-1, 7 and 24 h, respectively. The maximum demulsification activity and the half-life value (t1/2) of culture broth measured for a water-in-crude oil (W/CO) emulsion were 96.4% and 36 h at 80°C in flask. The demulsifier was purified to homogeneity using cold ethanol. For 4.33 mg mL-1 of partially purified microbial demulsifier, the half-life value for the W/CO model emulsion was 3 h.

Keywords: Biopolymer, demulsification, Microbacterium, demulsifier, petroleum emulsion, water-in-crude oil

African Journal of Biotechnology Vol. 12(16), pp. 2019-2026

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eISSN: 1684-5315