Demulsification of crude oil-in-water emulsions by means of fungal spores

PLoS One. 2017 Feb 24;12(2):e0170985. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0170985. eCollection 2017.

Abstract

The present feature describes for the first time the application of spores from Aspergillus sp. IMPMS7 to break out crude oil-in-water emulsions (O/W). The fungal spores were isolated from marine sediments polluted with petroleum hydrocarbons. The spores exhibited the ability to destabilize different O/W emulsions prepared with medium, heavy or extra-heavy Mexican crude oils with specific gravities between 10.1 and 21.2°API. The isolated fungal spores showed a high hydrophobic power of 89.3 ± 1.9% and with 2 g of spores per liter of emulsion, the half-life for emulsion destabilization was roughly 3.5 and 0.7 h for extra-heavy and medium crude oil, respectively. Then, the kinetics of water separation and the breaking of the O/W emulsion prepared with heavy oil through a spectrofluorometric technique were studied. A decrease in the fluorescence ratio at 339 and 326 nm (I339/I326) was observed in emulsions treated with spores, which is similar to previously reported results using chemical demulsifiers.

MeSH terms

  • Aspergillus / chemistry
  • Aspergillus / metabolism
  • Emulsifying Agents / chemistry*
  • Emulsifying Agents / metabolism
  • Emulsions / chemistry*
  • Geologic Sediments / chemistry
  • Geologic Sediments / microbiology
  • Hydrophobic and Hydrophilic Interactions
  • Petroleum / adverse effects
  • Spores, Fungal / chemistry
  • Spores, Fungal / metabolism*
  • Water / chemistry*
  • Water Pollution, Chemical / adverse effects
  • Water Pollution, Chemical / prevention & control

Substances

  • Emulsifying Agents
  • Emulsions
  • Petroleum
  • Water

Grants and funding

The authors thank Instituto Mexicano del Petroleo for the financial support provided through the project D.60016.