Lina Yi
Petroleum Development Engineer
China National Petroleum Corporation
Dr. Yina Li, Senior Engineer
Affiliation: Research Institute of Petroleum Exploration & Development (RIPED), China National Petroleum Corporation
Education: Ph.D. in Fluid Mechanics, University of Chinese Academy of Sciences (UCAS), 2014
Research Focus: Microbial Enhanced Oil Recovery (MEOR)
Current Research Domains:
• Genetic modification of petroleum-producing microorganisms
• Biosynthetic engineering of biological displacing agents (e.g., lipopeptides, glycolipids)
• Surface engineering optimization for microbial-driven oil extraction system
Participates in
TECHNICAL PROGRAMME | Primary Energy Supply
New Exploration & Production Technologies to Extend Supply
Forum 03 | Digital Poster Plaza 1
29
April
11:30
13:30
UTC+3
In recent years, problems such as production decline and the increasing difficulty in maintaining stable crude oil production have emerged in Chinese mature oil fields. The development of new environmentally friendly methods and enhanced oil recovery technologies, to further exploit the remaining oil resources is a widely discussed key challenges.
Integrated surface-subsurface microbial enhanced oil recovery(ISSM-EOR) represents an iterative advancement over conventional Indigenous/Exogenous microbial enhanced oil recovery(MEOR) technology. By integrating surface-based microbial cultivation phases with in situ metabolic processes in oil reservoirs, ISSM-EOR emphasizes enhancing microbial/metabolite concentrations through surface platforms that enable real-time monitoring and simplified control. Some of the surface-based cultivation procedures can also carry out microbial degradation of the crude oil in produced fluids extracted from oil wells.
In a pilot test of ISSM-EOR in China, Bacillus subtilis fermentation was conducted using a simplified near-wellbore process at injection sites. Non-target bacterial growth was suppressed through optimized fermentation parameters under non-sterile conditions, such as elevating the temperature to 42°C. The total bacterial concentration in the simplified fermentation broth reached 109 cells/mL, with target strain dominance exceeding 90%. The surfactant concentration metabolized by Bacillus subtilis exceeded 5 g/L, only 35% lower than that achieved in industrial-scale fermentation facilities. Huff-and-puff operation at 2 oil Well yielded 12,974 barrels of incremental oil production per cycle.
In an extended application of ISSM-EOR, produced water is reinjected into injection wells, thereby integrating microbial treatment of oil-containing produced water into the surface-based process. The surface system comprises three reaction tanks: an oil-removal conditioning tank, a fermentation reactor, and a sedimentation basin. In the oil removal tank, strains of crude oil-degrading bacteria mainly consisting of Candida viswanathii were introduced to achieve the purpose of purifying water quality. Fermentation tanks are inoculated with Pseudomonas aeruginosa strains for biomass cultivation and rhamnolipid biosynthesis. To date, this technology has been deployed across 200+ wells in China's Changqing Oilfield. In a pilot block at Changqing, 9 of 14 treated wells demonstrated production increases, with cumulative incremental production reaching 40,285 barrels between 2011-2019. Key performance metrics include: natural decline rate decreased from 15.4% to 0.4%, stage-enhanced oil recovery increased by 4.2%.
ISSM-EOR is an innovative MEOR methodology developed through systematic analysis of the primary oil-displacement mechanisms in conventional indigenous/exogenous MEOR systems. This technology integrates a dedicated surface-based cultivation phase, offering enhanced technical advantages: precision-controlled bioprocess conditions, high-purity metabolite yields, environmental friendliness, low cost. These attributes demonstrate significant potential for industrial scalability, particularly in mature oilfields.
Integrated surface-subsurface microbial enhanced oil recovery(ISSM-EOR) represents an iterative advancement over conventional Indigenous/Exogenous microbial enhanced oil recovery(MEOR) technology. By integrating surface-based microbial cultivation phases with in situ metabolic processes in oil reservoirs, ISSM-EOR emphasizes enhancing microbial/metabolite concentrations through surface platforms that enable real-time monitoring and simplified control. Some of the surface-based cultivation procedures can also carry out microbial degradation of the crude oil in produced fluids extracted from oil wells.
In a pilot test of ISSM-EOR in China, Bacillus subtilis fermentation was conducted using a simplified near-wellbore process at injection sites. Non-target bacterial growth was suppressed through optimized fermentation parameters under non-sterile conditions, such as elevating the temperature to 42°C. The total bacterial concentration in the simplified fermentation broth reached 109 cells/mL, with target strain dominance exceeding 90%. The surfactant concentration metabolized by Bacillus subtilis exceeded 5 g/L, only 35% lower than that achieved in industrial-scale fermentation facilities. Huff-and-puff operation at 2 oil Well yielded 12,974 barrels of incremental oil production per cycle.
In an extended application of ISSM-EOR, produced water is reinjected into injection wells, thereby integrating microbial treatment of oil-containing produced water into the surface-based process. The surface system comprises three reaction tanks: an oil-removal conditioning tank, a fermentation reactor, and a sedimentation basin. In the oil removal tank, strains of crude oil-degrading bacteria mainly consisting of Candida viswanathii were introduced to achieve the purpose of purifying water quality. Fermentation tanks are inoculated with Pseudomonas aeruginosa strains for biomass cultivation and rhamnolipid biosynthesis. To date, this technology has been deployed across 200+ wells in China's Changqing Oilfield. In a pilot block at Changqing, 9 of 14 treated wells demonstrated production increases, with cumulative incremental production reaching 40,285 barrels between 2011-2019. Key performance metrics include: natural decline rate decreased from 15.4% to 0.4%, stage-enhanced oil recovery increased by 4.2%.
ISSM-EOR is an innovative MEOR methodology developed through systematic analysis of the primary oil-displacement mechanisms in conventional indigenous/exogenous MEOR systems. This technology integrates a dedicated surface-based cultivation phase, offering enhanced technical advantages: precision-controlled bioprocess conditions, high-purity metabolite yields, environmental friendliness, low cost. These attributes demonstrate significant potential for industrial scalability, particularly in mature oilfields.
