Growth and Desulfurization Kinetics of Rhodcoccus Erythropol

Abstract
The growth Kinetics of Rhodococcus erythropolis IGTS8 on
dibenso-thiophene, DBT, of different initial concentrations as well as on
two petroleum fractions namely untreated and hydrodesulfurized gasoline
and gas oil have been investigated in batch cultures.
Using dibenzothiophene as a substrate, the specific growth rates were
found to decrease with increasing initial substrate concentration. The
removal of dibenzothiphene from culture media was found to follow first
order kinetics. The reaction rate constant, k, decreased with increasing
substrate concentration.
The decrease of both specific growth rate and reaction rate constant
with increasing substrate concentration suggested substrate inhibition.
The growth rate on untreated gasoline as well as on hydrodesulfurized
gasoline gave nearly the same specific growth rates of 0.067 h-1 while
growth on gas oil gave a higher specific growth rate of 0.1h-1.

Growth and Desulfurization Kinetics of Rhodcoccus Erythropol