Characterization of a newly isolated strain Pseudomonas sp. C27 for sulfide oxidation: Reaction kinetics and stoichiometry

Sulfide biooxidation by the novel sulfide-oxidizing bacteria Pseudomonas sp. C27, which could perform autotrophic and heterotrophic denitrification in mixotrophic medium, was studied in batch and continuous systems. Pseudomonas sp. C27 was able to oxidize sulfide at concentrations as high as 17.66 mM. Sulfide biooxidation occurred in two distinct stages, one resulting in the formation of sulfur with nitrate reduction to nitrite, followed by thiosulfate formation with nitrite reduction to N2. The composition of end-products was greatly impacted by the ratio of sulfide to nitrate initial concentrations. At a ratio of 0.23, thiosulfate represented 100% of the reaction products, while only 30% with a ratio of 1.17. In the continuous bioreactor, complete removal of sulfide was observed at sulfide concentration as high as 9.38 mM. Overall sulfide removal efficiency decreased continuously upon further increases in influent sulfide concentrations. Based on the experimental data kinetic parameter values were determined. The value of maximum specific growth rate, half saturation constant, decay coefficient, maintenance coefficient and yield were to be 0.11h-1, 0.68 mM sulfide, 0.11h-1, 0.21 mg sulfide/mg biomass h and 0.43 mg biomass/mg sulfide, respectively, which were close to or comparable with those reported in literature by other researches.