The Study of Biological Technologies for the Removal of Sulfur Compounds

Abstract

<em> </em>Combustion of sulfur components of fossil fuels such as oil causes the emission of SO₂ in the atmosphere and lead to the formation of acidic rain in the environment. The conventional approach for desulfurization of fossil fuels is the chemical procedure of hydrodesulfurization (HDS). However, this method has low efficiency for desulfurization of ring components of sulfur such as dibenzothiophene (DBT) that include a significant percentage of the total sulfur content of fossil fuel. biodesulfurization (BDS), is a biological method proposed for desulfurization of ring components of sulfur which is a non-destructive pathway to remove sulfur from hydrocarbons of petroleum in the mild conditions which potentially used as complementary with HDS. For industrial application of BDS, the approach needs the new challenge to enhance desulfurization activity by genetic engineering methods and bioreactor development to achieve from a fantasy technique to an industrial and reality method for reduction of sulfur from fossil fuels. In this review, we studied and evaluated the BDS and advances in the two last decades.