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Carbon dioxide concentration dictates alternative methanogenic pathways in oil reservoirs.

ABSTRACT: Deep subsurface formations (for example, high-temperature oil reservoirs) are candidate sites for carbon capture and storage technology. However, very little is known about how the subsurface microbial community would respond to an increase in CO2 pressure resulting from carbon capture and storage. Here we construct microcosms mimicking reservoir conditions (55 °C, 5 MPa) using high-temperature oil reservoir samples. Methanogenesis occurs under both high and low CO2 conditions in the microcosms. However, the increase in CO2 pressure accelerates the rate of methanogenesis to more than twice than that under low CO2 conditions. Isotope tracer and molecular analyses show that high CO2 conditions invoke acetoclastic methanogenesis in place of syntrophic acetate oxidation coupled with hydrogenotrophic methanogenesis that typically occurs in this environment (low CO2 conditions). Our results present a possibility of carbon capture and storage for enhanced microbial energy production in deep subsurface environments that can mitigate global warming and energy depletion.

SUBMITTER: Mayumi D

PROVIDER: S-EPMC3709511 | biostudies-literature | 2013

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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Carbon dioxide concentration dictates alternative methanogenic pathways in oil reservoirs.

Mayumi Daisuke D Dolfing Jan J Sakata Susumu S Maeda Haruo H Miyagawa Yoshihiro Y Ikarashi Masayuki M Tamaki Hideyuki H Takeuchi Mio M Nakatsu Cindy H CH Kamagata Yoichi Y

Nature communications 20130101

Deep subsurface formations (for example, high-temperature oil reservoirs) are candidate sites for carbon capture and storage technology. However, very little is known about how the subsurface microbial community would respond to an increase in CO2 pressure resulting from carbon capture and storage. Here we construct microcosms mimicking reservoir conditions (55 °C, 5 MPa) using high-temperature oil reservoir samples. Methanogenesis occurs under both high and low CO2 conditions in the microcosms. ...[more]

PMID: 23759740

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Project description:Stimulating in situ microbial communities in oil reservoirs to produce natural gas is a potentially viable strategy for recovering additional fossil fuel resources following traditional recovery operations. Little is known about what geochemical parameters drive microbial population dynamics in biodegraded, methanogenic oil reservoirs. We investigated if microbial community structure was significantly impacted by the extent of crude oil biodegradation, extent of biogenic methane production, and formation water chemistry. Twenty-two oil production wells from north central Louisiana, USA, were sampled for analysis of microbial community structure and fluid geochemistry. Archaea were the dominant microbial community in the majority of the wells sampled. Methanogens, including hydrogenotrophic and methylotrophic organisms, were numerically dominant in every well, accounting for, on average, over 98% of the total Archaea present. The dominant Bacteria groups were Pseudomonas, Acinetobacter, Enterobacteriaceae, and Clostridiales, which have also been identified in other microbially-altered oil reservoirs. Comparing microbial community structure to fluid (gas, water, and oil) geochemistry revealed that the relative extent of biodegradation, salinity, and spatial location were the major drivers of microbial diversity. Archaeal relative abundance was independent of the extent of methanogenesis, but closely correlated to the extent of crude oil biodegradation; therefore, microbial community structure is likely not a good sole predictor of methanogenic activity, but may predict the extent of crude oil biodegradation. However, when the shallow, highly biodegraded, low salinity wells were excluded from the statistical analysis, no environmental parameters could explain the differences in microbial community structure. This suggests that the microbial community structure of the 5 shallow, up-dip wells was different than the 17 deeper, down-dip wells. Also, the 17 down-dip wells had statistically similar microbial communities despite significant changes in environmental parameters between oil fields. Together, this implies that no single microbial population is a reliable indicator of a reservoir's ability to degrade crude oil to methane, and that geochemistry may be a more important indicator for selecting a reservoir suitable for microbial enhancement of natural gas generation.

Project description:Studies have indicated that the concentration of carbon dioxide [CO2] during the dark period may influence plant dry matter accumulation. It is often suggested that these effects on growth result from effects of [CO2] on rates of respiration, but responses of respiration to [CO2] remain controversial, and connections between changes in respiration rate and altered growth rate have not always been clear. The present experiments tested whether translocation, a major consumer of energy from respiration in exporting leaves, was sensitive to [CO2]. Nineteen-day-old soybean plants grown initially at a constant [CO2] of 350 micromol mol(-1) were exposed to three consecutive nights with a [CO2] of 220-1400 micromol mol(-1), with a daytime [CO2] of 350 micromol mol(-1). Change in dry mass of the individual second, third and fourth trifoliate leaves over the 3-d period was determined, along with rates of respiration and photosynthesis of second leaves, measured by net CO2 exchange. Translocation was determined from mass balance for second leaves. Additional experiments were conducted where the [CO2] around individual leaves was controlled separately from that of the rest of the plant. Results indicated that low [CO2] at night increased both respiration and translocation and elevated [CO2] decreased both processes, to similar relative extents. The effect of [CO2] during the dark on the change in leaf mass over 3 d was largest in second leaves, where the change in mass was about 50% greater at 1400 micromol mol(-1) CO2 than at 220 micromol mol(-1) CO2. The response of translocation to [CO2] was localized in individual leaves. Results indicated that effects of [CO2] on net carbon dioxide exchange rate in the dark either caused or reflected a change in a physiologically important process which is known to depend on energy supplied by respiration. Thus, it is unlikely that the observed effects of [CO2] on respiration were artefacts of the measurement process in this case.

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Carbon dioxide concentration dictates alternative methanogenic pathways in oil reservoirs.

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Carbon dioxide concentration dictates alternative methanogenic pathways in oil reservoirs.

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