Evaluation of sulfur-reducing microorganisms for organic desulfurization

Technical Report · Sun Dec 31 23:00:00 EST 1989

OSTI ID:5659809

Miller, K W ^[1]

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1. Illinois State Univ., Normal, IL (USA). Dept. of Biological Sciences

Because a substantial portion of the sulfur in Illinois coal is organically bound sulfur, microbial desulfurization of sulfidic and thiophenic functionalities holds great potential for complementing pyritic sulfur removal. The principal goals of their project are: to obtain anaerobic microbial cultures that produce H{sub 2}S from compounds representative of the organosulfur functionalities in coal; to optimize this activity; to evaluate the effectiveness of using these cultures to remove organic sulfur from Illinois coal. Their immediate objectives for this year are the following: to obtain additional cultures from coal mine waste and municipal sewage sludge, two environments previously unexplored by their laboratory; to continue optimizing activity in cultures that desulfurize model compounds, including identification of individual microbial species; to expand coal desulfurization experiments to include additional coals; and, to address the recently discovered problem of sulfide sorbing to coal. This quarter they installed a Coy Anaerobic Chamber, which will be used for isolation and manipulation of anaerobic cultures. Additionally, the anoxic atmosphere within the chamber makes it an ideal location for grinding and sieving a sample of North Dakota lignite and IBC-101, both of which will be used in desulfurization and sulfide sorption experiments. Further experiments with mixed anaerobic cultures that reductively degrade dibenzyldisulfide (DBDS) have demonstrated that reduction of DBDS does not depend on co-reduction of sulfate. 34 refs., 1 fig., 2 tab.

• Research Organization: Illinois Dept. of Energy and Natural Resources, Springfield, IL (USA)
• Sponsoring Organization: DOE; USDOE, Washington, DC (USA)
• DOE Contract Number: FG22-90PC90176
• OSTI ID: 5659809
• Report Number(s): DOE/PC/90176-T13; ON: DE91010512
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

01 COAL, LIGNITE, AND PEAT
010402* -- Coal
Lignite
& Peat-- Purification & Upgrading
550700 -- Microbiology
59 BASIC BIOLOGICAL SCIENCES
ANAEROBIC CONDITIONS
BACTERIA
CARBONACEOUS MATERIALS
CHALCOGENIDES
CHEMICAL REACTIONS
COAL
DESULFURIZATION
DOCUMENT TYPES
ENERGY SOURCES
FOSSIL FUELS
FUELS
GROWTH
HYDROGEN COMPOUNDS
HYDROGEN SULFIDES
MATERIALS
METABOLISM
MICROORGANISMS
OXYGEN COMPOUNDS
PROGRESS REPORT
SULFATE-REDUCING BACTERIA
SULFATES
SULFIDES
SULFUR COMPOUNDS