Microbial desulfurization mechanism

Hydrocarbon Microbiology biodegradation mechanisms of oil products (gasoline, kerosene, diesel, etc.), pyrolysis, polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, chlorinated solvents, and ether fuels refining processes (e.g., oil product microbial desulfurization) and oil production processes (e.g., bacterial corrosion). 

Two patents were awarded on microbial desulfurization of sulfur-containing heterocyclic compound [155,156], the first targeting DBT and alkylated DBTs and the other benzothiophenes and alkylated benzothiophenes. In both cases, the selective cleavage of the C—S bonds is reported as the main mechanism. The claimed bacteria strains are Mycobacterium G3 strain (PERM P-16105) and R. erythropolis KA2-5-1 strain (PERM P-16277), respectively. Special emphasis was made to the desulfurization of the recalcitrant 4,6-dimethyl-dibenzothiophene. The main product from DBT... 

Mechanism of Microbial Desulfurization. The microbial dissolution of pyritic sulfur in coal by acidophilic bacteria has been thoroughly investigated (17,18,29). The pyrite is readily oxidized by oxygen or ferric ion, resulting in the ferrous state as follows ... 

Better understanding of the mechanism of biodesulfurization, as shown in Figure 8, may be gained from some recent studies ° Gallagher et al. reported a sulfur-specific pathway in microbial desulfurization of DBT. Rhodococcus rhodochrous strain IGTS8 metabolizes DBT in a sulflir-specific manner. Two routes of desulfurization have been identified. Under growth conditions, the intermediates are dibenzothiophene sulfoxide, dibenzothiophene sulfone, 2 -hydroxybipheny 1-2-sulfonate, and 2,2 -... 

As sirmmarized by McFarland et al. ", microbial sulfur-specific transformations have been identified that selectively desulfurize organic sulfur compoimds in fossil fuels. Recent discoveries related to biodesulfurization mechanisms may lead to commercial applications of biodesulfurization through engineering recombinant strains for overexpression of biodesulfurization genes, removal of end product repression,... 

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