Isolation and Characterization of Microorganisms for Fuel Quality Improvement

Abstract:

The use of microorganisms to improve fuels quality has been proposed and in this chapter we describe basic experimental procedures for the isolation and characterization of microorganisms for biodesulfurization and biodenitrogenation with dibenzothiophene and carbazole as model compounds for each application, respectively. The presented protocols should be considered as a starting point and adapted to other problematic compounds and conditions. Basic protocols for the evaluation of the treatment of real oil fractions are also presented.

1 Introduction

The use of microorganisms to improve the refining of problematic feedstocks has been proposed (See Chapter 27, Vol. 4, Part 4). The main target has been the precombustion removal of sulfur in diesel oils in a process called biodesulfurization (BDS) (Mohebali and Ball, 2008). It has been possible to isolate microorganisms able to selectively extract