The document discusses several microbial process applications including accumulation of metals by microorganisms, biopulping, biofuels from microbes, and microbial enhanced oil recovery (MEOR). It provides details on how microorganisms can accumulate metals and influence their mobility in the environment. It also describes how fungi are used in biopulping to degrade lignin in wood chips prior to pulping. The production of biofuels like alcohols from biomass via microbial fermentation is explained. Finally, it outlines the mechanisms by which microbes can aid in the extraction of residual oil trapped in reservoirs through MEOR techniques.

2. Microbial Process Applications;
Accumulation of metals by
microbial cells, Bio-Pulping, Bio-
Fuels And Microbial Enhanced
Oil Recovery.

3. Presented by; Noor Muhammad
Ph.D Semester-II.
Department of Zoology
GC-University, Lahore
Presented to: Dr. Iram Liaqat

4. The use and dispersion of metals has increased vastly
during the 20th century, and the behavior of metals in the
environment is therefore a matter of rising concern.
Metals, like all elements, are not biodegradable and can
only be transformed from one chemical state to another.
The progressing regional acidification accelerates the
spreading of metals by changing them into free, hydrated
metal ions and thereby rendering them more mobile.
Accumulation of metals by
microorganisms

5. Metal accumulation by solid substances can counteract
metal mobilization in the environment if the solid
substance is immobile.
Microorganisms have a high surface area-to-volume
ratio because of their small size and therefore provide a
large contact area that can interact with metals in the
surrounding environment.
Microbial metal accumulation has received much
attention during the last years due to the potential use of
microorganisms for cleaning metal-polluted water.
Accumulation of metals by
microorganisms

6. Accumulation of metals by
microorganisms
Some metals are essential to microorganisms and
therefore required, whereas others are toxic even in
small quantities.
The composition and activity of the microflora
will thus fluctuate in response to metal availability.
Life in a polluted environment challenges the
microorganisms in many ways, which is reflected in
the fact that there is a greater demand for energy by
microorganisms in order to cope with the toxicity of
pollutants.
The ability to grow at high metal concentrations
is found in many organisms and may be the result
of intrinsic or induced mechanisms, as well as
environmental factors that may reduce metal
toxicity.

7. Accumulation of metals by
microorganisms
There are several ways in which microorganisms
can influence metals,
(1) Some metals can be transformed, either by
redox processes (e.g. Fe and Mn) or by alkylation
(e.g. Hg). The mobility and toxicity of the
transformed metal form usually differ significantly
from that of the original.
(2) Accumulation of metals can occur either by
metabolism-independent (passive) sorption or by
intracellular, metabolism-dependent (active) uptake.
Both processes may occur in the same organism.
Intracellular, passive accumulation has been
indicated in some cases.

8. Accumulation of metals by
microorganisms
In the following, the terms sorption and
adsorption are used when passive accumulation is
considered, uptake is used when metabolism-
dependent intracellular transport is implied and
accumulation when a general term is needed. If a
metal is accumulated by microorganisms, the fate of
the metal will be closely tied to the fate of the
microbial cells. On the one hand, microorganisms
can be transported and any metal accumulated by
them will therefore be mobile. On the other hand, in
many systems, a large fraction of the
microorganisms is immobile, and the metal can
consequently be retained.

9. Accumulation of metals by
microorganisms
(3) Microorganisms can produce or release
substances, for instance organic compounds that
change the mobility of the metals, or sulfide that
reduces the mobility of many metals.
(4) Microorganisms participate in the cycling of
carbon and thereby influence the amount and character
of organic matter. This can be of substantial importance
for metal mobility, because organic compounds may
bind metals. Microbial degradation of the metal–
organic complex can change the speciation of the
metal. However, metal binding to various organic
substances may decrease the microbial degradation of
the organic compound.
 The result may be that non-degraded organic matter
with metals associated accumulates.

10. Accumulation of metals by
microorganisms
(5) In addition to these direct processes,
microorganisms can influence metal
mobility indirectly since they affect pH, Eh, etc. All
these processes should be kept in mind while
studying the influence of microbial metal
accumulation on metal mobility.

11. Biopulping
Pulp and paper-making technologies undergo constant improvements
due to market demands and new developments in research.
The need for sustainable technologies has also brought biotechnology
into the realm of pulp and paper-making.
 Enzymatic processes as well as fungal processes are being developed
to increase pulp brightness, to reduce troublesome pitch, to improve the
quality of waste paper and to purify bleach plant effluents.
The use of white rot fungi for the treatment of wood chips prior to
mechanical or chemical pulping is called 'biopulping'.

12. .
Biotechnological attempts to improve primary pulp
producing processes by using isolated ligninolytic
enzymes have so far been inhibited by the complex
chemistry of the ligninolytic enzyme system, low
yields in enzyme production and the ultrastructure of
the wood itself.
White rot fungi, however, have great potential for
biotechnological applications.
They not only produce the whole set of enzymes
necessary for lignin degradation, but can also act as a
transport system for these enzymes by bringing them
into the depth of the wood chips and create the
physiological conditions necessary, for the enzymatic
reactions.
Biopulping

13. Biofuels from microbes
An accelerated release of fossil entombed CO2
due to human activity is now generally accepted
as a major factor contributing to the green house
effect
Approximately 28% of the energy available for
consumption in the EU25 countries is attributed
to transportation, of which, more than 80% is
due to road transport .

14. Biofuels from microbes
Biomass fuels have been used throughout man’s
long history.
Most of them were alcohols produced by the
fermentation of substances like starch or sugars,
others were plant oils.
Alongside combustion, they were put to a variety
of uses as solvents, greases, cleaners or as basic
chemicals for the emerging chemical industry, until
a cheaper source was found in fossil oil.

15. Biofuels from microbes
Today, with rising prices for crude oil and increasing
political instability in oil producing countries, the use of bio-
based alcohols as solvents or basic chemicals is again under
consideration.
The production of chemicals andfuels from locally grown
plant material supports political independence through
diversification and a decreased dependence on a few
essential energy sources, a CO2 neutral energy production
and a surplus of gross national product and economic power
being kept in the country.
This is especially crucial to remote and economically
disadvantaged agricultural areas.

16. Biofuels from microbes
Biological systems for fuel production; The following
description of biofuels and of their microbial production
processes is by no means exhaustive, but will encompass
the most interesting existing and possible processes where
microbial fermentation from bacteria and yeasts is
involved.
All microbial fermentation processes require a source of
energy to feed the organisms, which has to come from
biomass in the form of sugars.

17. Microbial Enhanced Oil Recovery
(MEOR)
Microbial enhanced oil recovery (MEOR) represents
the use of microorganisms to extract the remaining oil
from reservoirs.
This technique has the potential to be cost-efficient in
the extraction of oil remained trapped in capillary pores
of the formation rock or in areas not swept by the
classical or modern enhanced oil recovery (EOR)
methods, such as combustion, steams, miscible
displacement, caustic surfactant-polymers flooding, etc.

18. Microbial Enhanced Oil Recovery
(MEOR)
Thus, MEOR was developed as an alternative method for the
secondary and tertiary extraction of oil from reservoirs, since
after the petroleum crises in 1973, the EOR methods became less
profitable.
Starting even from the pioneering stage of MEOR (1950s)
studies were run on three broad areas, namely, injection,
dispersion, and propagation of microorganisms in petroleum
reservoirs; selective degradation of oil components to improve
flow characteristics; and metabolites production by
microorganisms and their effects.

19. Microbial Enhanced Oil
Recovery (MEOR)
THE NEED FOR MICROBIAL ENHANCED OIL
RECOVERY
The technology used today for the production of
petroleum from subsurface reservoirs has not advanced
beyond the stage at which the ultimate production of oil
is only one third to one half of the original oil-in-place.
Thus the potential target for enhanced oil recovery is
greater than the reserves that can be produced by
conventional methods.

20. Microbial Enhanced Oil Recovery
(MEOR)
A new approach was initiated in 1980 by the U.S.
Department of Energy by sponsorship of several
research programs at universities to test the potential
for enhancement of oil recovery using microbes.
The suggestion that bacteria could be used for oil
recovery was made by Beckmann (1926), and ZoBell
(1947) who conducted additional experiments that
indicated the potential for microbial release of oil from
sand grains.

21. The use of microorganisms and their metabolic
products to stimulate oil produc-tion is now receiving
renewed interest worldwide.
This technique involves the injection of selected
microorganisms into the reservoir and the subsequent
stimula-tion and transportation of their in-situ growth
products in order that their presence will aid in further
reduction of residual oil left in the reservoir after
secondary recovery is exhausted.
Microbial Enhanced Oil Recovery
(MEOR)

22. The MEOR is unlikely to replace conventional EOR
methods, because MEOR itself has certain constraints.
This unique process seems superior in many respects,
however, because self-duplicating units, namely the
bacteria cells, are injected into the reservoir and by their
in-situ multiplication they magnify their beneficial
effects.
Some of the mechanisms proposed, by which these
microbial agents could stimulate oil release.
Microbial Enhanced Oil Recovery
(MEOR)

23. The CO2 and/or CH4 produced from the fermentation
and neutralization of acid products by the
Bioproduct Effect
Acids
Biomass
Gases (CO2, CH4, H 2 )
Solvents Surface-active agents
Polymers
Microbial Enhanced Oil Recovery
(MEOR)

24. Modification of reservoir rock Improvement of porosity and
permeability Reaction with calcareous rocks and CO2
production Selective or nonselective plugging Emulsification
through adherence to hydrocarbons Modification of solid
surfaces Degradation and alteration of oil Reduction of oil
viscosity and oil pour point Desulfurization of oil Reservoir
repressurization Oil swelling Viscosity reduction Increase of
permeability due to solubilization of carbonate rocks by CO2
Dissolving of oil Lowering of interfacial tension Emulsification
Mobility control Selective or non-selective plugging
Microbial Enhanced Oil Recovery
(MEOR)

25. THANK YOU FOR YOUR
ATTENTION

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