Team:ITB INDONESIA/idea
RhamCOLIpid
Engineered E. coli producing rhamnolipid for green enhanced oil recovery
Idea
One of EOR methods by chemical injection is surfactant injection. The need of biodegradable and environmental friendly surfactant is important. One of biosurfactant is rhamnolipid, but it’s naturally produced by opportunistic pathogen Pseudomonas aeruginosa. Thus, ITB_Indonesia designs GRAS (Generally Recognized as Safe) bacteria, E. coli, to be able to produce rhamnolipid in a controllable and observable manner.
Using certain autoinduction media, rhamnolipid production is controlled by glucose-lactose composition in media. By utilizing glucose first, E. coli can grow without producing rhamnolipid. After glucose exhaustion, lactose can be utilized to induce rhamnolipid production. While producing, a chromoprotein reporter will be turned on and turn E. coli into observable colour. When lactose is depleted and no rhamnolipid is produced, E. coli will revert into being colourless, thus making observation much easier for further induction. E. coli is also controlled to not produce rhamnolipid when no lactose is present.
Rhamnolipid will be released into medium, making separation much easier. Only centrifugation is necessary. The medium supernatant containing rhamnolipid can be used for EOR.
This rhamnolipid-producing E. coli is called RHAMCOLIPID.