Date of Award:
5-1-1986
Document Type:
Dissertation
Degree Name:
Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)
Department:
Biology
Department name when degree awarded
Biology (Microbiology)
Committee Chair(s)
Frederick J. Post
Committee
Frederick J. Post
Abstract
Surface activity and optimum growth conditions were determined for ten strains of halophilic bacteria isolated from the Great Salt Lake and Halobacterium halobium NRG 34003. Three of these strains were used to determine bitumen release from Utah tar sand. Optimum growth requirements for H. halobium NRC 34003 were determined to be pH 6.5, temperature 40ºC, and NaCl concentration 22% (w v-1). Halobacterium strain 11 optimum growth conditions were pH 6.5, temperature 45ºC, and 22% w v-1 NaCl. All the halophiles tested showed archaebacterial lipid patterns by thin-layer chromatography (TLC). Surface tension measurements of different bacterial suspensions and various treatments for the halophilic isolates were determined. Strain 11 from the Great Salt Lake showed the greatest depression of surface tension (49.7 dynes cm-1). Strain 11 has a unique cell membrane lipid having two glycerol diether moieties (GDEM) and exhibited a linear decrease in surface tension with lipid concentration. Bitumen was extracted from Utah tar sands using three halobacterial strains. Suspensions of strain 11 gave the highest improvement factor (0.71) for bitumen extraction against distilled water and culture medium. Strain 34003 showed the highest improvement factor (0.45) only when the bacterial culture supernatant was used. Strain 5 showed the poorest improvement factors of bitumen extraction in all cases. These figures compare favorably to the improvement factors reported in the literature for whole cell culture media of Arthrobacter SFC and Corynebacterium fascians.
Recommended Citation
Al-Harjan, Fuad A., "Surface Activity of Different Strains of Halobacterium for Potential Use in Microbially Enhanced Oil Recovery" (1986). Biology. 538.
https://digitalcommons.usu.edu/etd_biology/538
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