Control of microbial sulfide production by limiting sulfate dispersal in a water-injected oil field.

Oil production by water injection often involves the use of makeup water to replace produced oil. Sulfate in makeup water is reduced by sulfate-reducing bacteria to sulfide, a process referred to as souring. In the MHGC field souring was caused by using makeup water with 4mM (384ppm) sulfate. Mixing with sulfate-free produced water gave injection water with 0.8mM sulfate. This was amended with nitrate to limit souring and was then distributed fieldwide. The start-up of an enhanced-oil-recovery pilot caused all sulfate-containing makeup water to be used for dissolution of polymer, which was then injected into a limited region of the field. Produced water from this pilot contained 10% of the injected sulfate concentration as sulfide, but was free of sulfate. Its use as makeup water in the main water plant of the field caused injection water sulfate to drop to zero. This in turn strongly decreased produced sulfide concentrations throughout the field and allowed a decreased injection of nitrate. The decreased injection of sulfate and nitrate caused major changes in the microbial community of produced waters. Limiting sulfate dispersal into a reservoir, which acts as a sulfate-removing biofilter, is thus a powerful method to decrease souring.

Characterization of trypsin and elastase from the moose (Alces alces). I. Amino acid composition and specificity towards polypeptides.

Trypsin and elastase isolated from the pancreas of the moose (Alces alces), a member of the Cervidae (deer) family, were characterized with respect to their amino acid composition and specificity towards polypeptides. Moose trypsin possessed 234 residues, based on alanine recoveries equal to 16.0 residues, with a molecular weight calculated at 24 476. Moose trypsin readily hydrolysed peptide bonds in which the carbonyl group was contributed by arginine, lysine and S-2-aminoethylcysteine as indicated by the peptides isolated following hydrolysis of the oxidized and the S-aminoethylated B-chain of insulin. Moose elastase possessed 231 residues, based on alanine recoveries equal to 17.0 residues, with a molecular weight calculated as 24 201. The high lysine (9 residues), low arginine (3 residues) content was in contrast to the opposite situation with porcine elastase and the elastase-like, alpha-lytic protease from Sorangium. The hydrolysis of the oxidized B-chain of insulin by moose elastase was similar to that produced by porcine elastase with major cleavages occurring at Val-12-Glu-13, Ala-14-Leu-15 and Val-18-Cys(O-3H)-19 and minor cleavages occurring at Ser-9-His-10 and Arg-21-Gly-22. The hydrolysis of glucagon with moose elastase produced major cleavages at Thr-7-Ser-8, Ser-11-Lys-12, Val-23-Gln-24 and Leu-26-Met-27. The facile hydrolysis of Arg-17-Arg-18 was also observed and attributed, in part, to trypsin.

Construction of a [NiFe]-hydrogenase deletion mutant of Desulfovibrio vulgaris Hildenborough.

A mutant of Desulfovibrio vulgaris Hildenborough lacking a gene for [NiFe] hydrogenase was generated. Growth studies, performed for the mutant in comparison with the wild-type, showed no strong differences during the exponential growth phase. However, the mutant cells died more rapidly in the stationary growth phase.

Deletion of the rbo gene increases the oxygen sensitivity of the sulfate-reducing bacterium Desulfovibrio vulgaris Hildenborough.

The rbo gene of Desulfovibrio vulgaris Hildenborough encodes rubredoxin oxidoreductase (Rbo), a 14-kDa iron sulfur protein; forms an operon with the gene for rubredoxin; and is preceded by the gene for the oxygen-sensing protein DcrA. We have deleted the rbo gene from D. vulgaris with the sacB mutagenesis procedure developed previously (R. Fu and G. Voordouw, Microbiology 143:1815-1826, 1997). The absence of the rbo-gene in the resulting mutant, D. vulgaris L2, was confirmed by PCR and protein blotting with Rbo-specific polyclonal antibodies. D. vulgaris L2 grows like the wild type under anaerobic conditions. Exposure to air for 24 h caused a 100-fold drop in CFU of L2 relative to the wild type. The lag times of liquid cultures of inocula exposed to air were on average also greater for L2 than for the wild type. These results demonstrate that Rbo, which is not homologous with superoxide dismutase or catalase, acts as an oxygen defense protein in the anaerobic, sulfate-reducing bacterium D. vulgaris Hildenborough and likely also in other sulfate-reducing bacteria and anaerobic archaea in which it has been found.

Deletion of the hmc operon of Desulfovibrio vulgaris subsp. vulgaris Hildenborough hampers hydrogen metabolism and low-redox-potential niche establishment.

The hmc operon of Desulfovibrio vulgaris subsp. vulgaris Hildenborough encodes a transmembrane redox protein complex (the Hmc complex) that has been proposed to catalyze electron transport linking periplasmic hydrogen oxidation to cytoplasmic sulfate reduction. We have replaced a 5-kb DNA fragment containing most of the hmc operon by the cat gene. The resulting chloramphenicol-resistant mutant D. vulgaris H801 grows normally when lactate or pyruvate serve as electron donors for sulfate reduction. Growth with hydrogen as electron donor for sulfate reduction (acetate and CO2 as the carbon source) is impaired. These results confirm the importance of the Hmc complex in electron transport from hydrogen to sulfate. Mutant H801 is also deficient in low-redox-potential niche establishment. On plates, colony development takes 14 days longer than colony development of the wild-type strain, when the cells use hydrogen as the electron donor. This result suggests that, in addition to transmembrane electron transport from hydrogen to sulfate, the redox reactions catalyzed by the Hmc complex are crucial in establishment of the required low-redox-potential niche that allows single cells to grow into colonies.

Reverse sample genome probing, a new technique for identification of bacteria in environmental samples by DNA hybridization, and its application to the identification of sulfate-reducing bacteria in oil field samples.

A novel method for the identification of bacteria in environmental samples by DNA hybridization is presented. It is based on the fact that, even within a genus, the genomes of different bacteria may have little overall sequence homology. This allows the use of the labeled genomic DNA of a given bacterium (referred to as a "standard") to probe for its presence and that of bacteria with highly homologous genomes in total DNA obtained from an environmental sample. Alternatively, total DNA extracted from the sample can be labeled and used to probe filters on which denatured chromosomal DNA from relevant bacterial standards has been spotted. The latter technique is referred to as reverse sample genome probing, since it is the reverse of the usual practice of deriving probes from reference bacteria for analyzing a DNA sample. Reverse sample genome probing allows identification of bacteria in a sample in a single step once a master filter with suitable standards has been developed. Application of reverse sample genome probing to the identification of sulfate-reducing bacteria in 31 samples obtained primarily from oil fields in the province of Alberta has indicated that there are at least 20 genotypically different sulfate-reducing bacteria in these samples.

Identification of distinct communities of sulfate-reducing bacteria in oil fields by reverse sample genome probing.

Thirty-five different standards of sulfate-reducing bacteria, identified by reverse sample genome probing and defined as bacteria with genomes showing little or no cross-hybridization, were in part characterized by Southern blotting, using 16S rRNA and hydrogenase gene probes. Samples from 56 sites in seven different western Canadian oil field locations were collected and enriched for sulfate-reducing bacteria by using different liquid media containing one of the following carbon sources: lactate, ethanol, benzoate, decanoate, propionate, or acetate. DNA was isolated from the enrichments and probed by reverse sample genome probing using master filters containing denatured chromosomal DNAs from the 35 sulfate-reducing bacterial standards. Statistical analysis of the microbial compositions at 44 of the 56 sites indicated the presence of two distinct communities of sulfate-reducing bacteria. The discriminating factor between the two communities was the salt concentration of the production waters, which were either fresh water or saline. Of 34 standards detected, 10 were unique to the fresh water and 18 were unique to the saline oil field environment, while only 6 organisms were cultured from both communities.