Microbiology, Petroleum, and Natural Gas, Essay Example

The article chosen for examination is entitled “Microbiological Studies on Petroleum and Natural Gas” and was authored by Hiroshi Iizuka and Kazuo Komagata and published in 1964. Although this article was published several decades ago, it is highly relevant to the field of earth and mineral science today. Bacteria are ancient organisms that can feed on a variety of substances, including the hydrocarbons that compose petroleum and natural gas. The authors of this article propose that microbiology could therefore be used to enhance our ability to refine petroleum. While these ideas were relatively abandoned by industry, they seem plausible, and would potentially be able to resolve many of the difficulties that we currently have in retrieving and purifying fossil fuels.

This study identified several microorganisms that would be capable of consuming hydrocarbons, including Pseudomonas and Flavobacterium, which are relatively common. It would be useful to continue to explore this topic from an engineering perspective so that researchers in the field will understand how this information can be used for practical applications. According to the discussion section written in this journal article, the authors themselves planned to continue their experimentation to find a use for this knowledge. It would therefore be helpful to conduct a literature review to determine the knowledge that is currently known on the topic and to synthesize it in a manner that reveals what we need to currently learn to bridge our gap in understanding of the topic.

This research is particularly relevant to my major because it could potentially develop into a thesis project. It would be valuable to determine what is currently known about the use of bacteria in the field of petroleum refinery and develop an experimental method that could be utilized to find the answer to a unique question. Aside from determining the gaps of knowledge that exist in this particular field of research, it would be useful to determine whether the same types of bacteria that were found in the oil reserves of Japan in the 1960’s would be found in other sites around the world. This would help us gain a realistic view of the microbial makeup of petroleum refineries overall, which will provide us a greater wealth of knowledge concerning the practical use that this information has.

Currently, microbes are being used for a variety of purposes in the petroleum industry, although this primary purpose is to clean up oil spills. Since these bacteria are able to break down petroleum and other natural gasses, cleanup efforts of large scale oil spills, such as the one that was most recently caused by BP, utilizedhydrocarbon eating bacteria in part as a cleanup technique. While this is a newly developed technique, it is likely that it will be expanded for use future. It would therefore be helpful to more closely examine how the efficacy of this technique could be maximized in order to ensure that it can provide benefit to the field.

Ultimately, it appears that petroleum science is changing significantly. Even though a majority of original research articles on the topic were published in the 1950s and 1960s, engineers are taking a closer look at this information to determine how it can trigger the evolution of refinery today. Since this is a natural resources that is needed by a majority of people, it is likely that funding for this type of research will increase in the future, which will trigger an increase in jobs as well. Therefore, training in the earth and mineral sciences is becoming increasingly important.

References

Iizuka H, Komagata K. (1964). Microbiological Studies on Petroleum and Natural Gas. Retrieved from https://www.jstage.jst.go.jp/article/jgam1955/10/3/10_3_207/_pdf