Monitoramento microbiológico e físico-químico de tanques de armazenamento de óleo e água

Abstract

Seawater injection for offshore petroleum recovery known as secondary petroleum, produces a high amount of residues and effluents. Among those waste solutions, produced water, consisting of formation water, naturally present during the geological formation of oil, and injection water, normally injected in the reservatory in order to increase oil recovery, deserves special attention. Seven water/oil storage tanks from an oil producing terminal were monitored for the presence of microorganisms, sulfate, sulfide, pH and conductivity. Particullarly, sulfate-reducing bacteria (SRB), acting with the help of other microbial species, deserve particular attention, due to its ability to reduce sulfate to sulfide. The storage tanks, coded as Green, Cyano, Purple, Gray, Red, Yellow and Blue, presented distinct behavior in relation to the microbiological and physico-chemical parameters. After the monitoring, according to reference values adopted for each parameter, and considering the main contribution of SRB cells, total anaerobic cells and sulfide, two tanks were considered the cleanest ones (purple and cyano). Analogously, considering the same parameters, the yellow and gray tanks were considered the dirtiest ones. After this initial segregation, those three main parameters and sulfate concentration were inter-related in order to corroborate the obtained classification for the tanks. It was possible to observe that sulfide concentration was not the most suitable parameter to be considered to predict the metabolic potential of a specific water sample. Due to this, the metabolic profiles of the SRB cells present in the samples were quantified, considering four tanks with different bacterial populations. This profile was consistent with the classification, confirming the segregation of the tanks, based on batch parameters