Construction and evaluation of an exopolysaccharide-producing engineered bacterial strain by protoplast fusion for microbial enhanced oil recovery

Enterobacter cloacae strain JD, which produces water-insoluble biopolymers at optimal temperature of 30 °C, and a thermophilic Geobacillus strain were used to construct an engineered strain for exopolysaccharide production at high temperatures by protoplast fusion. The obtained fusant strain ZR3 produced exopolysaccharides at up to 45 °C with optimal growth temperature at 35 °C. The fusant produced exopolysaccharides of approximately 7.5 g/L or more at pH between 7.0 and 9.0. The feasibility of the enhancement of crude oil recovery with the fusant was tested in a sand-packed column at 40 °C. The results demonstrated that bioaugmentation of the fusant was promising approach for MEOR. Mass growth of the fusant was confirmed in fermentor tests.