Biodesulfurization of Dibenzothiophene by Two Bacterial Strains in Cooperation with Fe3O4, ZnO and CuO Nanoparticles

Abstract

Fossil fuels contain a considerable amount of sulphur which after burning will have negative effects such as generating acid rain in the environment. Biodesulfurization is assumed to be a promising process for desulfurization due to no need for extreme conditions and furthermore breaking the C-S bond by microorganisms without destruction of the heterocyclic structure, through a pathway called 4S. In this study dibenzothiophene (DBT), as a model target compound was applied for sulfur removal by a cooperative system of two bacterial strains; Rhodococcus erythropolis IGTS8 and Pseudomonas aeruginosa PTSOX4, and Fe3 O4 , ZnO and CuO nanoparticles. Results of spectrophotometry and further HPLC analysis demonstrated that addition of the ZnO nanoparticles into the microbial culture, significantly resulted in the increment of desulfurization rate and conversion of DBT to 2-hydroxybiphenyl. The maximum value of almost 1.4 fold improvement in biodesulfurization activity was obtained for P. aeroginusa PTSOX4 in the presence of ZnO nanoparticles. Keywords: