Bacteria Forming Hydrogen Sulfide

As mentioned above, hydrogen sulfide is evolved from within the Earth, such as from hot springs and volcanoes, and is derived from the decomposition by bacteria 

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Nutriox A process for eliminating the odor and septicity of liquid effluent. Nitrate is added to the water, which prevents bacteria from forming hydrogen sulfide. Developed by Norsk Hydro in 1996. 

Under anaerobic conditions sulphate reducing bacteria are able to form hydrogen sulfide. 

BIF ceased to form after about 1.8 billion years ago, though other types of iron oxide ores such as limonite and goethite (FeO(OH)) formed. Fe(III), when brought to a reducing environment where sulfate is reduced by sulfate-reducing bacteria to hydrogen sulfide (H S), reacts with H S, and forms pyrite FeS. Pyrite is often found in coal. 

Arsenic is another element with different bioavailabiUty in its different redox states. Arsenic is not known to be an essential nutrient for eukaryotes, but arsenate (As(V)) and arsenite (As(III)) are toxic, with the latter being rather more so, at least to mammals. Nevertheless, some microorganisms grow at the expense of reducing arsenate to arsenite (81), while others are able to reduce these species to more reduced forms. In this case it is known that the element can be immobilized as an insoluble polymetallic sulfide by sulfate reducing bacteria, presumably adventitiously due to the production of hydrogen sulfide (82). Indeed many contaminant metal and metalloid ions can be immobilized as metal sulfides by sulfate reducing bacteria. 

NKK s Bio-SR process is another iron-based redox process which instead of chelates, uses Thiobacillusferroidans )2iQ. - 2i to regenerate the solution (9). This process absorbs hydrogen sulfide from a gas stream into a ferric sulfate solution. The solution reacts with the hydrogen sulfide to produce elemental sulfur and ferrous sulfate. The sulfur is separated via mechanical means, such as filtering. The solution is regenerated to the active ferric form by the bacteria. 

The manner in which many of these bacteria cany on their chemical processes is qmte comphcated and in some cases not fuUy understood. The role of sulfate-reducing bacteria (anaerobic) in promoting corrosion has been extensively investigated. The sulfates in shghtly acid to alkaline (pH 6 to 9) soils are reduced by these bacteria to form calcium sulfide and hydrogen sulfide. When these compounds come in contact with underground iron pipes, conversion of the iron to iron sulfide occurs. As these bacieria thrive under these conditions, they will continue to promote this reaction until failure of the pipe occurs. 

Scale deposits create conditions for concentration-cell corrosion as they do not form uniformly over the metal surface. Sulfate-reducing bacteria thrive under these deposits, producing hydrogen sulfide and, consequently, increasing the rate of corrosion. Due to the following factors, the drilling fluid environment is ideal for scale deposition [189]. These factors are as follows ... 

These microorganisms become a problem when their numbers are large enough to produce corrosives such as carbon dioxide and hydrogen sulfide. Pseudomonas, Bacillus and Flavobacterium are examples of slime-forming bacteria. 

Hydrogen sulfide is a well known general metabolite produced on sulfate reduction by certain bacteria. Moreover, organic forms of sulfur can give rise to HS , hence H2S in certain bacteria. Thus, cysteine desulfhydrase (EC 4.4.1.1, cystathionine y-lyase) converts L-cysteine to H2S, pyruvate, and NH3. This enzyme shows a requirement for pyridoxal phosphate and the unstable ami-noacrylic acid is an intermediate (Equation 1) in the reaction ... 

The cycle of iron solubilization will continue as long as bacteria and/or plants produce organic ligands.The cycle will stop when sulfate reduction rates are high and organic ligand production is low. At this point soluble hydrogen sulfide reacts with Fe(II) to form sulfide minerals. The iron cycle shown in Fig. 10.15 for salt marsh sediments may also occur in other marine sedimentary systems. 

The Bio-FGD process converts sulfur dioxide to sulfur via wet reduction (10). The sulfur dioxide gas and an aqueous solution of sodium hydroxide are contacted in an absorber. The sodium hydroxide reacts with the sulfur dioxide to form sodium sulfite. A sulfate-reducing bacteria converts the sodium sulfite to hydrogen sulfide in an anaerobic biological reactor. In a second bioreactor, the hydrogen sulfide is converted to elemental sulfur by Thiobacilh. The sulfur from the aerobic second reactor is separated from the solution and processed as a sulfur cake or liquid. The process, developed by Paques BV and Hoogovens Technical Services Energy and Environment BV, can achieve 98% sulfur recovery. This process is similar to the Thiopaq Bioscrubber process for hydrogen sulfide removal offered by Paques. 

These bacteria cannot in general oxidize water and must live on more readily oxidizable substrates such as hydrogen sulfide. The reaction centre for photosynthesis is a vesicle of some 600 A diameter, called the chromato-phore . This vesicle contains a protein of molecular weight around 70 kDa, four molecules of bacteriochlorophyll and two molecules of bacteriopheophy-tin (replacing the central Mg2+ atom by two H+ atoms), an atom Fe2+ in the form of ferrocytochrome, plus two quinones as electron acceptors, one of which may also be associated with an Fe2+. Two of the bacteriochlorophylls form a dimer which acts as the energy trap (this is similar to excimer formation). A molecule of bacteriopheophytin acts as the primary electron acceptor, then the electron is handed over in turn to the two quinones while the positive hole migrates to the ferrocytochrome, as shown in Figure 5.7. The detailed description of this simple photosynthetic system by means of X-ray diffraction has been a landmark in this field in recent years. 

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