Growth Kinetic Survey in Direct Biological Sweetening of Natural Gas in Batch Bioreactor: Temperature Studies

The present study is focused on biodesulfurization of natural gas in a batch culture using active microorganisms. The microorganisms used for the removal of hydrogen sulfide were obtained from a hot spring. The experiments were conducted with mixed gas at operating temperatures of 25 to 45°C with a time interval of 5h. Two kinetic models included Logistic and Monod models in a batch culture were used to describe the microbial growth and substrate utilization. In operating temperature of 35 °C, maximum cell dry weight of 0.512 was obtained with Logistic model. The achieved regression values for Logistic model were reasonably acceptable for all operating temperatures. As the gas temperature was increased to 45 °C, the inhibition coefficient may be dominated in growth kinetic.