Fig. 1 A dialogue between our team and biosafety expert, Indra Wibowo, Ph.D.

Biosafety is an important issue when we would like to apply Genetically Modified Organisms (GMOs) or its products into environment. Taking this into account, we had a dialogue with a biosafety expert from our university, ITB.

According to him, there are many parameters to categorize a product safety to be applied in real environment. Addressing the environmental issue for our project, for instance, we must analyze whether our bioproduct could bring any harm to the organism living in the oil reservoir. In terms of health, the fundamental parameter is whether the product can cause any infections to human. If we could not guarantee these things, our product could not be applied to the environment. In addition, we must also assess the level of our product toxicity, the dose that would be used at the environment, and also the route of application.

Each country has different biosafety regulation, but still, refers to a global biosafety standards. This is because each country has different case, product, and government policies. For example, for transgenes or GMOs product, Indonesia restrict all use of those kind of products. In Indonesia, the risk assessment carried out by experts who are active in independent government institution, academicians, or NGO. Usually, Ministry of Environment and Forestry

In conclusion, we must address the issue of environmental impact, regulation, toxicity level of product, route of application, and nevertheless its relation to human health if we would like to address the biosafety of our product and its application.

Product Application Criteria

To create a biosurfactant is really challenging, but of course, the product should be able to be applied to bring benefits. To assess the quality of our product, we brought our product to R & D Center for Oil and Gas Technology to measure its interfacial tension (IFT). While having our product being measured, the human practice team had a dialogue with two of the researchers there.

Fig. 2 Ir. Letty Brioletty, M.Sc., Head of EOR Research Divison of LEMIGAS

We had the opportunity to interview and had a discussion with the Head of EOR Research Divison, Ir. Letty Brioletty, M.Sc.

This is her opinion about EOR and a good surfactant criteria, “There are several requirements that you must meet or consider to create a surfactant. The first one, the surfactant should be compatible with the solution. In this case, is the formation water and crude oil. Next, the surfactant is capable of forming the needed phase behavior which is resistant to high temperature. Absorption and core flooding. As long as you could create a surfactant that meets all of the criterias, the surfactant could be applied. Right now, most of the people apply the surfactant based on petroleum-sulphonate. The surfactant is compatible with the crude oil, since the production of the surfactant based on something that resembles the properties of the crude oil. If you would like to create a surfactant which based on something that does not have the properties of the crude oil or the reservoir environment, the challenges are how you would like to modify and create your surfactant. If you could create a surfactant based on organisms, that would be really awesome! It would be really spectacular! It would be very great for Indonesia. Hopefully, the created surfactant would be relatively economic and could be applied in the future.”

This following video shows the support from one of the researchers there to our team:

“As a scientist in the oil and gas sector, I really appreciate the Rhamcolipid project done by these friends from ITB and hopefully the project will be success in the competition. My colleagues and I in the Research and Development Centre of Oil and Gas Technology division also hope that ITB team could promote this kind of competition and research more in the future. Right now, the prospect of this research seems promising since a research such as RhamCOLIpid has never been done before in Indonesia. Therefore, we wish that the produced biosurfactant could be applied in the oil and gas fields and provide better production of oil in the future. We are looking forward to developing this research through collaboration with ITB.”
Cut Nanda Sari, M.Si.
Researcher
R & D Center for Oil and Gas Technology (LEMIGAS)

Fig. 3 Dr. Ir. Leksono Mucharam, M.Sc.
Petroleum Engineering Lecturer, Consultant

Moreover, we also had a talk with an expert from our university who scrutinize EOR and surfactant for oil production, Dr. Ir. Leksono Mucharam, M.Sc. He is a lecturer in Petroleum Engineering, Faculty of Mining and Petroleum Engineering and also a consultant of Lemigas, Asamera Indonesia Co., Pertamina-JAPEX, ARBNI, Pertamina EP, YPF Maxus, British Petroleum Indonesia, ExxonMobil, and Medco Energy.

“Nowadays, many biological scientists work in research and development of Microbial Enhanced Oil Recovery (MEOR) that produce surfactant. As you may know, surfactant is commonly used as a media for EOR which has specialized criteria. In general, the chemical should decrease the interfacial tension (IFT) so that a lot of microemulsions could be produced. Unfortunately, utilizing surfactant in EOR is not as simple as that. One of the drawbacks is its water solubility characteristic, hence it would not be soluble in oil and could not be used in EOR. If ITB_INDONESIA iGEM team could produce a biosurfactant which has a good IFT, it will be a nice shot. I wish you the best of luck with your project” Dr. Ir. Leksono Mucharam, M.Sc.
Petroleum Engineering Lecturer, Consultant

On the other occassion, we had the opportunity to interview one of the ex site manager of Total E & P Indonesie. We gained the insights about EOR application in industry from him. This was what he said,

Fig. 4 Ir. Novyal Erwin, Ex Site Manager of Total E & P Indonesie

“Using the biosurfactant in oil and gas production is a new approach for the industries. It would be an option for Enhance Oil Recovery (EOR) instead of using synthetic (chemical) surfactant. Conventional recovery types recover only 20% of oil in reservoir. Today, advanced technology allows production of about 60 percent of the available resources from a formation. By optimizing the amount of biosurfactant injected to the well, we could bring as much as 60 percent of the reserve to the surface.

Consequently, there are few things to consider before using the biosurfactant. Extracting oil and natural gas from deposits deep underground is not as simple as just drilling and completing a well. Firstly, the biological safety issue will come up related to bacterial usage for biosurfactant production. The second one is the safety issue in association with work risk, such as fire and accident caused by the reaction of biosurfactant and oil. The last point is the cost of production. The industry may select it as more cost effective than the other substance. The ITB_Indonesia iGEM team is becoming a part of EOR development. Good job.”
Ir. Novyal Erwin
Ex Site Manager Total E & P Indonesie