Biodesulfurization of flue gases and other sulfate/sulfite waste streams using immobilized mixed sulfate-reducing bacteria.

Sulfur dioxide (SO2) is one of the major pollutants in the atmosphere that cause acid rain. Microbial processes for reducing SO2 to hydrogen sulfide (H2S) have previously been demonstrated by utilizing mixed cultures of sulfate-reducing bacteria (SRB) with municipal sewage digest as the carbon and energy source. To maximize the productivity of the bioreactor for SO2 reduction in this study, various immobilized cell bioreactors were investigated: a stirred tank with SRB flocs and columnar reactors with cells immobilized in either potassium-carrageenan gel matrix or polymeric porous BIO-SEP beads. The maximum volumetric productivity for SO2 reduction in the continuous stirred-tank reactor (CSTR) with SRB flocs was 2.1 mmol of SO2/(h.L). The potassium-carrageenan gell matrix used for cell immobilization was not durable at feed sulfite concentrations greater than 2000 mg/L (1.7 mmol/(h.L)). A columnar reactor with mixed SRB cells that had been allowed to grow into highly stable BIO-SEP polymeric beads exhibited the highest sulfite conversion rates, in the range 16.5 mmol/(h.L) (with 100% conversion) to 20 mmol/(h.L) (with 95% conversion). The average specific activity for sulfite reduction in the column, in terms of dry weight of SRB biomass, was 9.5 mmol of sulfite/(h.g). In addition to flue gas desulfurization, potential applications of this microbial process include the treatment of sulfate/sulfite-laden wastewater from the pulp and paper, petroleum, mining, and chemical industries.

Microbial reduction of sulfur dioxide with anaerobically digested municipal sewage biosolids as electron donors.

A concentrated stream of sulfur dioxide (SO2) is produced by regeneration of the sorbent in certain new regenerable processes for the desulfurization of flue gas. We have previously proposed that this SO2 can be converted to elemental sulfur for disposal or byproduct recovery using a microbial/Claus process. In this process, two-thirds of the SO2-reducing gas stream would be contacted with a mixed culture containing sulfate-reducing bacteria (SRB), where SO2 would act as an electron acceptor with reduction to hydrogen sulfide (H2S). This H2S could then be recombined with the remaining SO2 and sent to a Claus unit to produce elemental sulfur. The sulfate-reducing bacterium, Desulfovibrio desulfuricans, has been immobilized by coculture with flocforming heterotrophs from an anaerobic digester, resulting in a SO2-reducing floc that may be collected from the effluent of a continuous reactor for recycle by gravity sedimentation. The carbon and energy source for these cultures was anaerobically digested municipal sewage solids. The maximum specific activity for SO2 reduction in these cultures, in terms of dry weight of D. desulfuricans biomass, was 9.1 mmol of SO2/h.g. The stoichiometry with respect to the electron donor was 15.5 mg of soluble COD/mmol of SO2 reduced.