Main description:

This volume offers environmentally friendly technical solutions that can be implemented to solve problems throughout the value chain of the fossil fuel industry. This new book presents an up-to date view of hydrocarbon microbiology and biotechnology, presented by experts around the world with interest in how our expanding understanding of hydrocarbonoclast ecology and physiology can translate to better tools for bioremediation, oil recovery, bio-upgrading of unconventional crudes, the development of biorefining technologies, and the production of hydrogen and electricity from hydrocarbon wastes. The common theme across the chapters in this book is an interest in how developing hydrocarbon biotechnologies may reduce our impact on the global environment.

Written by eminent scientists from both academia and industry, the book starts with a historical perspective on hydrocarbon chemistry and formation, petroleum microbiology, and biotechnology. This is followed by a review of recent research developments in bioremediation and other biotechnologies for hydrocarbons, the principal constituents of petroleum and natural gas.

Contents:

1. Petroleum Chemistry 2. Biotechnology in the Refinery 3. Novel Insights into Bioremediation of Petroleum-Polluted Environments and Bacterial Catabolic Pathways 4. Microbial Degradation of Spilled Oil in Aqueous Environments: Beyond C15 Hydrocarbons 5. Functional Diversity of Microbial Communities in Hydrocarbon-Polluted Ecosystems 6. Bacterial Chemotaxis, Current Knowledge, and Future Need for Application in Hydrocarbon Remediation Technologies 7. Biosurfactants-Mediated Remediation of Hydrocarbon Pollution 8. Microbial Enhanced Oil Recovery 9. Biocatalytic Upgrading of Opportunity Crudes 10. Hydrogen and Electricity Production from Oil and Gas Wastes