Microbial removal of organic sulfur from coal (bacterial degradation of sulfur-containing heterocyclic compounds): Final report, March 1--December 31, 1987

Technical Report · Tue Mar 01 04:00:00 EST 1988

DOI:https://doi.org/10.2172/6462019· OSTI ID:6462019

Klubek, B.; Clark, D.

The presence of levels of sulfur in coal is a major source of air pollution and considerable efforts are being made to devise a cost-effective way of removing it. One promising method is microbial desulfurization. Almost all of the inorganic sulfur can be removed from coal by the bacteria Thiobacillus or Sulfolobus, which convert sulfide to sulfate but leave the organic sulfur untouched. If strains of bacteria are developed which remove organic sulfur from coal and are used in conjunction with inorganic sulfur-oxidizing bacteria, the result should be an effective desulfurization method. We are using two approaches to develop bacteria which remove organic sulfur. One method is to mutate a laboratory species, Escherichia coli, an organism which is genetically well understood and whose pathways for the metabolism of sulfur-containing amino acids have been extensively investigated. Such thiophene degraders can be genetically analyzed, and the genes involved can be cloned in order to amplify their products. The second approach is the development of naturally occurring bacteria capable of thiophene degradation. Enrichment culture techniques, mutagenesis of current isolated strains, and mixed culture studies with crushed coal comprise an alternative approach in our study. The degradation rates of our model-thiophene compounds and the preliminary testing of our isolates with coal will index the efficiency of our strains in coal desulfurization. Ultimately, the genes responsible for thiophene degradation by our isolated strains will be transferred to our E. coli strain, creating a single organism capable of degrading a broad spectrum of thiophene compounds. 14 refs., 5 tabs.

• Research Organization: Southern Illinois Univ., Carbondale (USA)
• Sponsoring Organization: USDOE
• DOE Contract Number: FC22-87PC79863
• OSTI ID: 6462019
• Report Number(s): DOE/PC/79863-T17; ON: DE89008368
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

01 COAL, LIGNITE, AND PEAT
010300 -- Coal
Lignite
& Peat-- Preparation-- (1987-)
550700* -- Microbiology
59 BASIC BIOLOGICAL SCIENCES
BACTERIA
BIODEGRADATION
CARBONACEOUS MATERIALS
CHEMICAL REACTIONS
COAL
DECOMPOSITION
DESULFURIZATION
DOCUMENT TYPES
ENERGY SOURCES
ESCHERICHIA COLI
FEDERAL REGION V
FOSSIL FUELS
FUELS
GENETIC ENGINEERING
HETEROCYCLIC COMPOUNDS
ILLINOIS
MATERIALS
METABOLISM
MICROORGANISMS
NORTH AMERICA
ORGANIC COMPOUNDS
ORGANIC SULFUR COMPOUNDS
PARTICLE SIZE
PROGRESS REPORT
SIZE
SULFUR-OXIDIZING BACTERIA
THIOPHENE
USA