Biosurfactant-producing and oil-degrading Bacillus subtilis strains enhance oil recovery in laboratory sand-pack columns

- Sand-pack columns were designed to simulate the oil recovery operations.
- Indigenous Bacillus subtilis strains produced biosurfactants inside the columns.
- They also degraded the long-chain n-alkanes and reduced oil viscosity in porous media.
- Both processes led to an improvement in the oil recovery.
- Results obtained confirm the applicability of these isolates in MEOR.