Bioremoval of organic and inorganic sulphur from coal samples

The microbial ecology of different Spanish coal samples has been studied. S everal bacteria have been isolated from enrichment cultures and characteris ed and their biodesulphurization abilities evaluated. Using morphological a nd physiological properties, different isolates have been related to specie s of the Xanthomonas, Pseudomonas, Chryseomonas and Moraxella genera. Some of the isolates, B(30)15 and T(30)10, gave important levels of organic desu lphurization, close to 70%. Other isolates, B(30)7 and B(30)8, were able to remove inorganic sulphur with high efficiencies, over 67%. One of the isol ates, B(30)10, metabolically related to Xanthomonas maltophila, was able to remove both organic and inorganic sulphur at neutral pH, with efficiencies of 69% and 68% respectively. The results obtained underline the potential use of some of these strains for industrial coal desulphurization processes .