Cupriavidus sp. are generally heavy metal tolerant bacteria with the ability to degrade a variety of aromatic hydrocarbon compounds, although the degradation pathways and substrate versatilities remain largely unknown. Here we studied the bacterium Cupriavidus gilardii strain CR3, which was isolated from a natural asphalt deposit, and which was shown to utilize naphthenic acids as a sole carbon...

Naphthenic acids (NAs) are water soluble weak acids, with the general chemical formula CnH2n+zO2, where n is the carbon number, z is referred to as hydrogen deficiency, is a negative even integer and is the number of hydrogen atoms that are lost as the number of rings in naphthenic acid increases. More than one isomer will exist for a given z homolog and the molecular weights differ by 2 mass u...

The aim of this study is to explore the capability of subcritical methanol to reduce the acidity of naphthenic acids and to determine reaction kinetics for large-scale reactor design.The experiments were carried out in a 25 mL autoclave reactor (China) at temperatures of 70-120oC, Methanol Partial Pressures (MPPs) of 0.1-1.5 MPa, and reaction times of 0-60 min. The total...

The aim of this study is to explore the capability of subcritical methanol to reduce the acidity of naphthenic acids and to determine reaction kinetics for large-scale reactor design.The experiments were carried out in a 25 mL autoclave reactor (China) at temperatures of 70-120oC, Methanol Partial Pressures (MPPs) of 0.1-1.5 MPa, and reaction times of 0-60 min. The total...

Capillary electrophoresis coupled to mass spectrometry (CE-MS) was used for the analysis of naphthenic acid fraction compounds (NAFCs) of oil sands process-affected water (OSPW). A standard mixture of amine-derivatized naphthenic acids is injected directly onto the CE column and analyzed by CE-MS in less than 15min. Time of flight MS analysis (TOFMS), optimized for high molecular weight ions, s...