Enhancement of dibenzothiophene biodesulfurization by Gordonia alkanivorans str...

• Author(s): Alves, Luís Manuel ; Silva, Tiago P. ; Arez, B. F. ; Paixão, Susana M.
• Date: 2013
• Persistent ID: http://hdl.handle.net/10400.9/2073
• Origin: Repositório do LNEG
• Subject(s): Dibenzothiophene; Biodesulfurization; Gordonia alkanivorans
• Document Type: Conference Object
• Language: English

Description

The removal of sulfur mediated by microorganisms or biodesulfurization (BDS) is already an extensively studied approach. The first studies were reported in the 50’s and 60’s, but only in the last 20 years have been successful breakthroughs. Through BDS it is possible to remove most of the recalcitrant sulfur compounds to the commonly physico-chemical process at mild operating conditions without molecular hydrogen, resorting to microorganisms. These microorganisms can remove sulfur from dibenzothiphene (DBT), a model compound, and other polycyclic aromatic using them as their sulfur source, making BDS an easy and environmental friendly process. Gordonia alkanivorans strain 1B [1] has been described as a desulphurizing bacterium, able to desulfurize DBT to 2-hydroxybiphenyl (2-HBP), the final product of the 4S pathway, using D-glucose as carbon source. However, both the cell growth and the desulphurization rate can be largely affected by the nutrient composition of the growth medium [2,3,4], due to cofactor requirements of many enzymes involved in BDS biochemical pathway.