Anaerobic sulfide removal involves an intricate interplay between biomass, biosulfur, and solutes

Abstract

In the biodesulfurisation process harmful sulfide is converted to sulfur by sulfide oxidising bacteria (SOB), using oxygen as terminal electron acceptor. Surprisingly, in this process sulfide is already removed before oxygen is consumed. Therefore, sulfide and/or charge is being shuttled between sulfide removal and terminal electron transfer. Previously, it was thought that the bacteria themselves were the exclusive “electron shuttlers”. Patterns in sulfide concentration and oxygen reduction potential (ORP) during anaerobic sulfide removal tests in batch confirmed that SOB remove sulfide in two steps, of which the second lowered the ORP. However, we found that aside from biomass also biosulfur and certain solutes are involved in electron shuttling. Gradual removal of sulfide by interactions between sulfide, solutes, and biosulfur caused an increase in ORP, even after all sulfide was removed. The amplitude and rate of ORP increase rose with increasing sulfide removal capacity of the process solution. We hypothesise that organic thiol/disulfide redox couples are involved in electron shuttling.