| Liquid redox processes use a chelated redox solution for oxidation of hydrogen sulfide present in sour natural gas. The ferric ions (Fe;This project investigates the use of an iron oxidizing bacterium, Thiobacillus ferrooxidans (T. f), to regenerate commercial iron chelate catalysts. The objective of this project is to quantify an increase in the biologically enhanced redox solution regeneration rates. The laboratory study showed that the T. f enhance the re-oxidation rates and sulfur removal significantly as compared to the rates in the absence of the bacteria. The iron oxidizing bacteria, Thiobacillus ferrooxidans (ATCC 23270) used in this study was obtained from American Type Culture Collection (ATCC), Rockville, MD. T. f derives energy required for its growth from the oxidation of reduced sulfur compounds and from the oxidation of ferrous (Fe;A simple two step process using Thiobacillus ferrooxidans is proposed for the next generation of liquid redox processes, which would result in higher re-oxidation rates thereby lowering the sour gas processing costs and thus improve the process economics. |
