Micro-Bac International, Inc.
Awards
Executive Oil Conference Honors Micro-Bac It all began in 1979 in Austin with a simple idea: use natural bacterial processes to let nature clean itself up in a variety of applications from wastewater treatment to downhole paraffin and corrosion in the oil field. It was an idea that worked.
Energy Award for Technology winner Juan Morales moved to Austin in 1977 to retire from a 20-year career as a mechanical engineer in the sheet metal industry. Instead, his interest in microbiology and the environment let him to start Micro-Bac International, Inc., in 1979 while researching a microbial treatment to reduce sludge in sewage treatment ponds. In 1986, the company developed the first microbial treatments for long-term control of paraffin, corrosion and scale downhole and in other oil-field systems. Micro-Bac has since added other oil-field remediation microbes to its arsenal.
Morales has said, "I believed back when I started the company, and I still believe today, that 80 percent to 85 percent of all problems can be solved with bacteria. With our environmental pollution problems, there's no doubt about it."
Morales' company now based in Round Rock, TX, north of Austin, uses only naturally occurring microbes - no genetic engineering is involved. The company isolates bacteria, which are non-pathogenic, meaning they will not cause diseases in humans. Because most bacteria have an appetite for only certain things, each strain must be tested to determine what it's hungry for before it can be used in any field application.
Then the bacteria must be "fed" the right nutrients in the right environment (temperature, humidity, etc.) to generate mass quantities. Because of their increased number, specific diet and hearty constitution, the bacteria are ready to take on large jobs.
Twenty-five years after its founding, Micro-Bac now does business worldwide, including Latin America, Asia and Europe as well as the United States and Canada. In 1994, Micro-Bac International, Inc. established a joint-venture business with a Chinese company to help with oil production in that country.
The Executive Oil Conference's award only adds to a long list of achievements already given to Morales. In 1992, he was a finalist for Ernst and Young's Entrepreneur of the Year. He has been listed in a number of Who's Who publications including its Hall of Fame in 1996. Hart's Petroleum Engineer International Magazine awarded Morales a special meritorious award for engineering achievement in 1991, and four years later Hart's Oil & Gas World Magazine gave him the Best of the Northeast Certificate of Achievement for Best New Technology.
Reprinted from Midland Reporter Telegram