Desulfurization of Dibenzothiophene by a Novel Strain Brevibacillus Invocatus C19 Isolated From Egyptian Coke

H.N. Nassar¹, N.Sh. El-Gendy^1*, M.A. Abo-State², Y.M. Mostafa¹, H.M. Mahdy³ and S. A. El-Temtamy¹

¹Egyptian Petroleum Research Institute, Nasr City, Cairo, Egypt. ²National Centre for Radiation Research and Technology (NCRRT), Cairo, Egypt. ³Botany and Microbiology Department, Faculty of Science, Al-Azhar University, Cairo, Egypt.   Corresponding Author E- Mail: nourepri@yahoo.com

DOI : http://dx.doi.org/10.13005/bbra/1090

ABSTRACT: In this study, an effective enrichment technique was applied to isolate different bacterial strains with capabilities to utilize dibenzothiophene (DBT) as a model compound of polyaromatic sulfur heterocyclic compounds (PASHs). Twenty-eight different desulfurizing bacterial strains were isolated from a mineral coke sample with sulfur content of 3.8%. Only nine of them showed the ability to utilize DBT as a sole-sulfur source through the 4S-pathway without altering its hydrocarbon skeleton. From all; a Gram +ve bacterial isolate designated C19 showed a higher biodesulfurization (BDS) efficiencyrelevant to the well-known biodesulfurizing bacterium strain R. erythropolis IGTS8, recording 66.85% and 50% removal of 1000 ppm DBT with the production of 31.98 and 31.34 ppm 2-hydroxybiphenyl (2-HBP), as a dead end product, respectively. C19 was identified by 16S rDNA gene sequence analysis to be Brevibacillus invocatus C19 (NCBI Gene Bank Accession no. KC999852) with similarity of 99.05%. BDS of different PASHs was also studied and Brevibacillus invocatus C19 showed good BDS capabilitiescompared to those of IGTS8.

KEYWORDS: Biodesulfurization; Dibenzothiophene; 4S-pathway; Thiophenic compounds; 16s rDNA

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