Enhancement of bunker oil biodesulfurization by adding surfactant

CATEGORY: BIODESULFURIZATION
World Journal of Microbiology and Biotechnology
Enhancement of bunker oil biodesulfurization by adding surfactant
AuthorsWangliang Li (1,2)
Xia Jiang (2,3)
xjiang@scu.edu.cn
1. National Key Laboratory of Biochemical Engineering, Institute of Process Engineering, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, 100190 People’s Republic of China
2. Institute of Environmental Science and Engineering, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore, 63772 Singapore
3. College of Architecture and Environment, Sichuan University, No. 24, South Section 1, First Ring Road, Chengdu, 610065 Sichuan, People’s Republic of China
Abstract
Biodesulfurization (BDS) is a promising method to remove sulfur compounds from diesel and gasoline. However, information on BDS of heavy oil is scanty.  This may be due to their undesirable physical properties and more complicated sulfur diversities.  Authors have studied the BDS of one kind of heavy oil, bunker oil MFO380.  The biocatalyst they used was obtained by the enrichment with oil sludge as the seed.  Dibenzothiophene (DBT) was used as the sole sulfur source.
The enriched biocatalyst (microbial mixed culture) could selectively remove sulfur from DBT.  DBT was transformed into 2-hydroxybiphenyl, indicating that the BDS process is beneficial to non-destructive carbon bonds and therefore can maintain the calorific value. The bunker oil BDS results showed that after 7 days of incubation, the removal efficiency of sulfur in MFO380 was only 2.88 %, but this could be significantly improved by adding surfactants Triton X-100 or Tween 20. Adding Triton X-100 achieved the highest removal efficiency of sulfur, up to 51.7 % after 7 days of incubation.
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