Effect of dispersion on vacuum disstellation residue degradation: broth media

Subject Areas : Biotechnology and Applied Microbiology journal

Received: 2012-11-04 Accepted : 2017-11-05 Published : 2013-02-19

Keywords: Vacuum Residue, mechanical dispersion, microbial growth, bubble column fermentor,

Abstract :

High value low molecular weight petroleum product has increased attraction for degradation of heavy petroleum products such as vacuum residue (VR) to produce lower molecular weight products.Vacuum residues consisted of high molecular weight compounds and are degraded slowly and with low efficiency probably because of their low aqueous solubility and the high resonance energies oftheir structures. Dispersionmay cause to decrease mass transfer limitation due to the increasing surface area contact betweenthese compounds and microorganisms. In this study, the effect of increasing surface area of vacuum residue in aqueous mediumby mechanical dispersion on bacterialgrowthin bubble column fermentor was investigated.  A native microbial consortium with consumption capability of the vacuum residue as sole carbon source was used.It was shown that increasing homogenization time adversely affected dissolving VR in aqueous medium and the particle size are increased. To study the effect of homogenization on microbial growth, protein content was measured during fermentation.  Our results show, homogenization has not affected significantly on microbial growth.