TABLE OF CONTENTS Use of biotechnology in the oil industry is almost unknown. As a whole, only a few initiatives related to use of biofiltration for gas treatment has reached refining operations. In the exploration and production segment of the oil industry, MEOR has been known and employed to a certain extent in secondary or tertiary recovery of oil.
A biological technology involves a wide range of disciplines, usually involving a high degree of complexity. The application of biotechnology in an essentially non-related area, such as refining, increases the complexity even further, since an additional number of disciplines have to be integrated in developing a solution to the problem. Large multidisciplinary teams, a variety of equipment and the difference in the scaling factors involved in biotechnology deployment compared to refining technologies makes it expensive not only from operation point of view but also at the R&D level.
From Chapter 3 and 5, one may deduce that in only very few cases, was there a consistent and integrated effort between the refining folks and the biological experts. Instead, in most of the cases, the biological experience never merges with the refining, even in examples from the oil industry. This may be the first reason why none of those initiatives have resulted in a commercial biorefining process, leaving an impression of inadequate viability.
At present, the advances in the techniques, methods and tools employed by biotechnologists make early sophisticated equipment and protocols to be routinely used now. Expertise and specialized support can be...
