Construction of Shale Gas Oil-Based Drilling Cuttings Degrading Bacterial Consortium and Their Degradation Characteristics

• Published in: Microorganisms (Basel) Vol. 12; no. 2; p. 318
• Main Authors: Fan, Li, Gong, Xianhe, Lv, Quanwei, Bin, Denghui, Wang, Li'Ao
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Switzerland MDPI AG 02.02.2024; MDPI
• Subjects: Alkanes; Bacteria; bacterial consortium; Biodegradation; Bioremediation; Carcinogens; Chemical properties; Chromatography; Consortia; Drilling; Efficiency; Energy consumption; Environmental aspects; Gas oil; Gas wells; Health aspects; Hydrocarbon-degrading bacteria; Hydrocarbons; Methods; Morphology; Natural gas; Oil well drilling; oil-based drilling cuttings; Performance degradation; Petroleum; Petroleum hydrocarbons; Physiological aspects; Physiology; Rhodococcus; Salinity; Shale; Shale gas; Shales; Temperature; Teratogenicity; Trace elements; China; United States > US; petroleum hydrocarbons; shale gas; oil-based drilling cuttings; bacterial consortium
• ISSN: 2076-2607; 2076-2607
• DOI: 10.3390/microorganisms12020318

Oil-based drilling cuttings (OBDCs) contain petroleum hydrocarbons with complex compositions and high concentrations, which have highly carcinogenic, teratogenic, and mutagenic properties. In this study, three highly efficient petroleum hydrocarbon-degrading bacteria were screened from OBDCs of different shale gas wells in Chongqing, China, and identified as sp. and sp. Because of their ability to degrade hydrocarbons of various chain lengths, a new method was proposed for degrading petroleum hydrocarbons in shale gas OBDCs by combining different bacterial species. Results showed that the bacterial consortium, consisting of the three strains, exhibited the highest degradation rate for petroleum hydrocarbons, capable of degrading 74.38% of long-chain alkanes and 93.57% of short-chain alkanes, respectively. Moreover, the petroleum hydrocarbon degradation performance of the bacterial consortium in actual OBDCs could reach 90.60% in the optimal conditions, and the degradation kinetic process followed a first-order kinetic model. This study provides a certain technical reserve for the bioremediation of shale gas OBDCs.