Growth Kinetics of Rhodococcus Erythropolis IGTS8 on Thiophe

Abstract
Sulfur oxides emissions through fossil fuel combustion posse
environmental problems because these oxides are major cause of acid
rain, which dissolve buildings, kills forests and poisons lakes. That is why
world environmental regulations are becoming harder with respect to
sulfur content in fossil fuels. The demand for new low-cost
desulfurization technologies has led to renewed interest in
biodesulfurization.
In this work the growth kinetics of Rhodococcus Erythopolis
IGTS8 have been studied on two model sulfur compounds that are found
among other sulfur compounds in petroleum fractions. These are namely
thiophne and dimethyl sulfoxide , DEMSO. Batch reactor and different
substrate concentrations ranging between 1 and 8 gl-1 were used to study
the growth kinetics. Growth on thiophene was shown to follow Monode
kinetics with μ max =0.064 h-1 and Ks = 2.8gl-1, on the other hand, growth
on DEMSO was found to be substrate inhibited.

Growth Kinetics of Rhodococcus Erythropolis IGTS8 on Thiophe