H Amani,
Volume 14, Issue 1 (4-2014)
Abstract
The petroleum industry generates large amounts of solid and semisolid wastes known as oily sludges. Oily sludges can be generated in several steps of the petroleum production and refining in the bottom of tanks. The accumulation of oily residues in petroleum industry poses aserious environmental problem.The aim of this research was to evaluate an alternative process of removal of oily sludge from storage tanks that can be carried out by using biosurfactants. One of the most important properties of biosurfactants is reduction of surface tension and formation of oil/water emulsions. In this research, the ability of Pseudomonas aeruginosa PTCC 1570 to produce rhamnolipid was shown and the production of rhamnoilipd was confirmed by TLC and HPLC analysis. The rhamnolipid production started at exponential growth phase and continued during the stationary phase. During investigation of rhamnolipid production on sunflower oil as sole carbon, the results showed that the maximum rhamnolipid reached about 0.5 g/l. Finally, crude oil recovery from an oil storage tank using produced rhamnolipd was also demonstrated at CMC concentration. An oil recovery of up to 70 % was obtained in a storage tank using this method.
