{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2025,10,16]],"date-time":"2025-10-16T05:11:58Z","timestamp":1760591518466,"version":"build-2065373602"},"reference-count":29,"publisher":"MDPI AG","issue":"10","license":[{"start":{"date-parts":[[2025,10,12]],"date-time":"2025-10-12T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1760227200000},"content-version":"vor","delay-in-days":0,"URL":"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by\/4.0\/"}],"funder":[{"DOI":"10.13039\/501100001809","name":"National Natural Science Foundation of China","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","award":["52174019"],"award-info":[{"award-number":["52174019"]}],"id":[{"id":"10.13039\/501100001809","id-type":"DOI","asserted-by":"publisher"}]},{"DOI":"10.13039\/501100018537","name":"National Science and Technology Major Project of the Ministry of Science and Technology of China","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","award":["2025ZD1406407"],"award-info":[{"award-number":["2025ZD1406407"]}],"id":[{"id":"10.13039\/501100018537","id-type":"DOI","asserted-by":"crossref"}]}],"content-domain":{"domain":[],"crossmark-restriction":false},"short-container-title":["Gels"],"abstract":"<jats:p>To address the limitations of traditional chemical flooding\u2014such as high cost, environmental impact, and formation damage\u2014and the challenges of standalone microbial flooding\u2014including preferential channeling, microbial loss, and limited sweep efficiency\u2014this study develops a novel composite system for a high-permeability heavy oil reservoir. The system integrates a 3% scleroglucan + 1% phenolic resin gel (ICRG) with Bacillus licheniformis (ZY-1) and a surfactant. Core flooding and two-dimensional physical simulation experiments reveal a synergistic mechanism: The robust and biocompatible ICRG gel effectively plugs dominant flow paths, increasing displacement pressure fourfold to divert subsequent fluids. The injected strain ZY-1 then metabolizes hydrocarbons, producing biosurfactants that reduce oil\u2013water interfacial tension by 61.9% and crude oil viscosity by 65%, thereby enhancing oil mobility. This combined approach of conformance control and enhanced oil displacement resulted in a significant increase in ultimate oil recovery, achieving 15% and 20% in one-dimensional and two-dimensional models, respectively, demonstrating its substantial potential for improving heavy oil production.<\/jats:p>","DOI":"10.3390\/gels11100818","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2025,10,15]],"date-time":"2025-10-15T11:57:42Z","timestamp":1760529462000},"page":"818","update-policy":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.3390\/mdpi_crossmark_policy","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":0,"title":["Research on the Mechanism and Characteristics of Gel\u2013Microbial Composite Oil Displacement in Hypertonic Heavy Oil Reservoirs"],"prefix":"10.3390","volume":"11","author":[{"given":"Baolei","family":"Liu","sequence":"first","affiliation":[{"name":"School of Petroleum Engineering, Yangtze University, Wuhan 430100, China"},{"name":"State Key Laboratory of Low Carbon Catalysis and Carbon Dioxide Utilization, Yangtze University, Wuhan 430100, China"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"given":"Xiang","family":"Li","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"School of Petroleum Engineering, Yangtze University, Wuhan 430100, China"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"given":"Hongbo","family":"Wang","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Research Institute of Exploration and Development, Xinjiang Oilfield Company, PetroChina, Karamay 834000, China"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"given":"Xiang","family":"Liu","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"School of Petroleum Engineering, Yangtze University, Wuhan 430100, China"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]}],"member":"1968","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2025,10,12]]},"reference":[{"key":"ref_1","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"1871392","DOI":"10.1155\/2019\/1871392","article-title":"Recent Advance of Microbial Enhanced Oil Recovery (MEOR) in China","volume":"2019","author":"She","year":"2019","journal-title":"Geofluids"},{"key":"ref_2","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"134488","DOI":"10.1016\/j.fuel.2025.134488","article-title":"Sustainable Enhancing Oil Recovery in Different Reservoirs via Reservoir Adaptability and Multifunction of Bacillus Velezensis","volume":"388","author":"Chen","year":"2025","journal-title":"Fuel"},{"key":"ref_3","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"139293","DOI":"10.1016\/j.chemosphere.2023.139293","article-title":"Investigating the Crude Oil Biodegradation Performance in Bioreactor by Using a Consortium of Symbiotic Bacteria","volume":"337","author":"Chuah","year":"2023","journal-title":"Chemosphere"},{"key":"ref_4","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"S15","DOI":"10.1134\/S0026261724609631","article-title":"Microbiological Characteristics of Sapropel and the Possibility of Its Application for Enhanced Oil Recovery from Carbonate Reservoirs","volume":"93","author":"Sokolova","year":"2024","journal-title":"Microbiology"},{"key":"ref_5","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"e11424","DOI":"10.1016\/j.heliyon.2022.e11424","article-title":"Research Advances of Microbial Enhanced Oil Recovery","volume":"8","author":"Wu","year":"2022","journal-title":"Heliyon"},{"key":"ref_6","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Pi, Y., Liu, J., Cao, R., Liu, L., Ma, Y., Gu, X., Li, X., Fan, X., and Zhao, M. 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