Elucidating microbial processes in nitrate- and sulfate-reducing systems using sulfur and oxygen isotope ratios: The example of oil reservoir souring control |
| |
Authors: | Casey Hubert Gerrit Voordouw |
| |
Affiliation: | a Department of Biological Sciences, University of Calgary, 2500 University Drive NW, Calgary, Alta., Canada T2N 1N4 b Department of Geoscience, University of Calgary, 2500 University Drive NW, Calgary, Alta., Canada T2N 1N4 |
| |
Abstract: | Sulfate-reducing bacteria (SRB) are ubiquitous in anoxic environments where they couple the oxidation of organic compounds to the production of hydrogen sulfide. This can be problematic for various industries including oil production where reservoir “souring” (the generation of H2S) requires corrective actions. Nitrate or nitrite injection into sour oil fields can promote SRB control by stimulating organotrophic nitrate- or nitrite-reducing bacteria (O-NRB) that out-compete SRB for electron donors (biocompetitive exclusion), and/or by lithotrophic nitrate- or nitrite-reducing sulfide oxidizing bacteria (NR-SOB) that remove H2S directly. Sulfur and oxygen isotope ratios of sulfide and sulfate were monitored in batch cultures and sulfidic bioreactors to evaluate mitigation of SRB activities by nitrate or nitrite injection. Sulfate reduction in batch cultures of Desulfovibrio sp. strain Lac15 indicated typical Rayleigh-type fractionation of sulfur isotopes during bacterial sulfate reduction (BSR) with lactate, whereas oxygen isotope ratios in unreacted sulfate remained constant. Sulfur isotope fractionation in batch cultures of the NR-SOB Thiomicrospira sp. strain CVO was minimal during the oxidation of sulfide to sulfate, which had δ18OSO4 values similar to that of the water-oxygen. Treating an up-flow bioreactor with increasing doses of nitrate to eliminate sulfide resulted in changes in sulfur isotope ratios of sulfate and sulfide but very little variation in oxygen isotope ratios of sulfate. These observations were similar to results obtained from SRB-only, but different from those of NR-SOB-only pure culture control experiments. This suggests that biocompetitive exclusion of SRB took place in the nitrate-injected bioreactor. In two replicate bioreactors treated with nitrite, less pronounced sulfur isotope fractionation and a slight decrease in δ18OSO4 were observed. This indicated that NR-SOB played a minor role during dosing with low nitrite and that biocompetitive exclusion was the major process. The results demonstrate that stable isotope data can contribute unique information for understanding complex microbial processes in nitrate- and sulfate-reducing systems, and offer important information for the management of H2S problems in oil reservoirs and elsewhere. |
| |
Keywords: | |
本文献已被 ScienceDirect 等数据库收录! |
|