Columbia Technology in partnership with the IFES will develop superbug

The company capixaba Columbia Technology, incubated the TecVitória, is developing an innovative project for the oil and national and international sector. In partnership with the Federal Institute of the Holy Spirit – IFES, the objective is to get a superbug that will be able to turn the heavy oil found in the pre-salt layer and onshore, in light oil.

The project, pioneer in Brazil, will enable the removal of the viscous oil with great reduction of costs, and may also be provided for large markets such as the Middle East. Moreover, the process with the super bug is naturally and without loss of quality of the extracted product, unlike other tertiary recovery methods, such as chemical method. The study drew the attention of the Federal Government, which provided the funds necessary for the development of the work, budgeted at R $ 500,000.

The first step to getting the superbug is done through sampling in oil wells of the state and work began in February. Since its initial kick is being performed insulation tests and genetic manipulation in order to obtain a superbug with the desired characteristics. The engineer responsible for the project, Tiago Coutinho Vasconcelos, Columbia Technology, this product will have an impact throughout the domestic oil market.

“Today, one of the greatest difficulties of the market is to extract heavy oil efficiently and with low environmental impact. Our challenge is to make the microorganisms the optimal solution for heavy oil. Worldwide, there are about 5 trillion barrels that can be recovered by this method. The superbug will act in several ways, among them by changing the permeability of the formation through production of acids, the production of biosurfactants which decrease surface tension, to produce smaller hydrocarbon molecules and through the gas production that increase formation pressure . All these mechanisms facilitate the production of oil, and consequently tend to reduce production costs, “he said.

Oil is now one of the most promising sectors in the Holy Spirit. The forecasts for investment and maintenance of this sector in Brazil in the 2014-2018 period reached R $ 488 billion, according to BNDES. If we add that will be generated from investments in Brazil in the automotive, steel, aviation, pulp and paper, mining and quarrying, mineral, chemical and electronics in the same period, we got almost half of it or R $ 247 billion.

For Mile4 Asses. Comunicação