echemi logo
Product
  • Product
  • Supplier
  • Inquiry
    Home > Biochemistry News > Microbiology News > Nature's old oil field is expected to "resurrect"!

    Nature's old oil field is expected to "resurrect"!

    • Last Update: 2022-01-11
    • Source: Internet
    • Author: User
    Search more information of high quality chemicals, good prices and reliable suppliers, visit www.echemi.com

    Editor’s note iNature is China’s largest academic public account.
    It is jointly created by a team of doctors from Tsinghua University, Harvard University, Chinese Academy of Sciences and other units.
    The iNature talent public account is now launched, focusing on talent recruitment, academic progress, scientific research information, interested parties can Long press or scan the QR code below to follow us
    .

    iNature's traditional crude oil extraction technology is difficult to drive the movement of all crude oil from underground reservoirs, and more than half of the crude oil cannot be extracted
    .

    Using the principle of biogas fermentation to degrade liquid crude oil into gaseous methane to form oil and gas co-extraction is a path that scientists are committed to exploring
    .

    The methanogenic degradation of petroleum hydrocarbons can be carried out through the homotrophic partnership of hydrocarbon-degrading bacteria and methanogenic archaea
    .

    However, recent culture-independent research has shown that a single archaea "Candidatus Methanoliparum" can combine the degradation of long-chain alkanes with methane production
    .

    However, these claims lack direct physiological evidence
    .

     On October 22, 2021, Cheng Lei from the Institute of Biogas Science of the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs, Li Meng from Shenzhen University and Gunter Wegener from the Max Planck Institute of Marine Microbiology jointly published an online publication titled "Non-syntrophic methanogenic hydrocarbon degradation by an archaeal" in Nature.
    Species" research paper, which cultivated Ca.
    Methanoliparum from underground oil reservoirs
    .

    Molecular analysis showed that Ca.
    Methanoliparum contains and overexpresses genes encoding alkyl-Coenzyme M reductase and methyl-Coenzyme M reductase, which are marker genes for archaeal polycarbonate and methane metabolism
    .

    Incubation experiments with different substrates and mass spectrometry detection of Coenzyme-M binding intermediates confirmed that Ca.
    Methanoliparum not only thrives on a variety of long-chain alkanes, but also in n-alkylcyclohexane and long-n-alkyl (C≥ 13) Some n-alkylbenzenes can also thrive
    .

    In contrast, short-chain alkanes (such as ethane to octane) or aromatics with short alkyl chains (C≤12) are not consumed
    .

    The widespread distribution of Ca Methanoliparum in oil-rich environments suggests that this alkanotrophic methanogen may play a key role in the conversion of hydrocarbons to methane
    .

    In short, the study found a new type of methanogenic archaea from oil reservoirs that can directly oxidize long-chain alkyl hydrocarbons in crude oil to produce methane in an anaerobic environment, breaking through the fact that methanogenic archaea can only grow with simple compounds.
    Traditional cognition expands the cognition of the carbon metabolism function of methanogenic archaea
    .

    This research has perfected the biogeochemical process of the carbon cycle and laid a scientific foundation for the biogasification of residual crude oil from depleted oil reservoirs-the "underground biogas project"
    .

    In underground oil reservoirs and marine oil-seepage sediments, microorganisms use hydrocarbons as a source of energy and carbon
    .

    Microorganisms preferentially consume alkanes, cyclic and aromatic compounds, leaving undecomposed complex mixtures as residues, thereby changing the quality of the oil
    .

    In the absence of sulfates, microorganisms will combine anaerobic hydrocarbon degradation with methane formation
    .

    This reaction was first proved by Zengler et al.
    as a "microbial alkane cracking" for methanogenesis.
    A large number of studies have shown that it can be carried out in the co-trophic interaction of bacteria and archaea
    .

    In this cotrophic process, bacteria ferment oil into acetate, carbon dioxide, and hydrogen, and hydrogen and/or acetate-trophic methanogenic archaea use these products to produce methane
    .

    There are a variety of anaerobic hydrocarbon activation mechanisms, including the well-studied fumarate addition pathway catalyzed by glycyl radical enzymes
    .

    This mechanism is common in bacteria that live on alkanes and other hydrocarbons of various chain lengths
    .

    In contrast, several archaeal lineages activate gaseous alkanes with the help of a specific type of methyl-Coenzyme M reductase (MCR), which was originally described as catalyzing the methyl-Coenzyme M (methyl-CoM) in methanogens.
    )
    .

    Anaerobic methanotrophic archaea use the classic MCR to activate methane to methyl-CoM and then oxidize it to CO2
    .

    Short-chain alkane-oxidizing archaea contain different variants of this enzyme, called alkyl CoM reductase (ACR)
    .

    Similar to the activation of MCR by methane, ACR activates multi-carbon alkanes to form CoM-bound alkyl units
    .

    Visualization of methanogenesis and microorganisms in oily sludge (picture from Nature) Cultured alkane-oxidizing archaea oxidize short-chain alkanes (such as ethane, propane or butane) through Wood-Ljungdahl and/or β oxidation pathways CO2
    .

    These archaea need co-cultivation partner bacteria, which receive the reducing equivalents released during the oxidation of alkanes for sulfate reduction
    .

    However, many uncultured archaea lineages contain acr genes, which indicates that the hydrocarbon-degrading archaea are far more diverse than the few cultured representatives portrayed
    .

    The recently described metagenomic assembly genome (MAG)'Candidatus Methanoliparia' encodes the canonical MCR and ACR
    .

    This unique combination of MCR-ACR, combined with additional genomic features, such as membrane-bound methylcobalamin: CoM methyltransferase (Mtr), indicates that these archaea combine the degradation of alkanes and the formation of methane without the need for co- Raise a partner
    .

    However, these claims lack direct physiological evidence
    .

     The research cultivated Ca.
    Methanoliparum from underground oil reservoirs
    .

    Molecular analysis showed that Ca.
    Methanoliparum contains and overexpresses genes encoding alkyl-Coenzyme M reductase and methyl-Coenzyme M reductase, which are marker genes for archaeal polycarbonate and methane metabolism
    .

    Incubation experiments with different substrates and mass spectrometry detection of Coenzyme-M binding intermediates confirmed that Ca.
    Methanoliparum not only thrives on a variety of long-chain alkanes, but also in n-alkylcyclohexane and long-n-alkyl (C≥ 13) Some n-alkylbenzenes can also thrive
    .

    In contrast, short-chain alkanes (such as ethane to octane) or aromatics with short alkyl chains (C≤12) are not consumed
    .

    The widespread distribution of Ca Methanoliparum in oil-rich environments suggests that this alkanotrophic methanogen may play a key role in the conversion of hydrocarbons to methane
    .

    In short, the study found a new type of methanogenic archaea from oil reservoirs that can directly oxidize long-chain alkyl hydrocarbons in crude oil to produce methane in an anaerobic environment, breaking through the fact that methanogenic archaea can only grow with simple compounds.
    Traditional cognition expands the cognition of the carbon metabolism function of methanogenic archaea
    .

    This research has perfected the biogeochemical process of the carbon cycle and laid a scientific foundation for the biogasification of residual crude oil from depleted oil reservoirs-the "underground biogas project"
    .

    The Chenglei team and the Institute of Biogas Science of the Ministry of Agriculture invite young talents to join the team: research on the structure and function of key functional enzymes in the process of anaerobic biotransformation, construction of genetic operating systems and metabolic regulation mechanisms of methanogenic archaea Research, microbial community and function research in the process of organic matter degradation and methane production (macromics), research on the biogeochemical process and characteristics of crude oil anaerobic biodegradation, research on the characteristics of carbon isotope fractionation in crude oil biogasification process, development of biocatalytic materials, and Its application research in soil remediation (contact: Mr.
    Xie, email: biomahr@163.
    com)
    .

    Reference message: https://
    This article is an English version of an article which is originally in the Chinese language on echemi.com and is provided for information purposes only. This website makes no representation or warranty of any kind, either expressed or implied, as to the accuracy, completeness ownership or reliability of the article or any translations thereof. If you have any concerns or complaints relating to the article, please send an email, providing a detailed description of the concern or complaint, to service@echemi.com. A staff member will contact you within 5 working days. Once verified, infringing content will be removed immediately.

    Contact Us

    The source of this page with content of products and services is from Internet, which doesn't represent ECHEMI's opinion. If you have any queries, please write to service@echemi.com. It will be replied within 5 days.

    Moreover, if you find any instances of plagiarism from the page, please send email to service@echemi.com with relevant evidence.