INFLUENCE OF FOUR BACILLUS SP. STRAINS ON GROWTH AND DESULFURIZATION ABILITY OF MYCOBACTERIUM STRAIN U Tian, Fangzhou Bacillus sp. Biodesulfurization DBT Mycobacterium Desulfurization is an important step in crude oil processing and is commonly achieved through a chemical process known as hydrodesulfurization (HDS). Because this process is expensive and produces H2S as a by-product, the alternative of biodesulfurization (BDS) has been investigated for many years. The most potentially useful biodesulfurization process is the 4S pathway, which is found in a number of bacterial species, including Mycobacterium Strain U, which was isolated in our lab. To reach the requirement of BDS for use in an actual industrial-scale process, U has to survive at temperatures approaching 60 OC. In work in our lab, natural selection methods have been introduced for improving the U strain. During this natural selection, four contaminant strains, identified by 16S rDNA sequencing as Bacillus sp., were isolated from extraordinary U cultures which have BDS activity at 54 OC. Meanwhile the BDS activity of U on its own was found to have an upper temperature limitation of 53 OC. Additional experiments proved that all four Bacillus strains interact with U and improve its BDS ability. M.S. in Biology, May 2016 Stark, Benjamin C. 2016 2016-05 Thesis application/pdf islandora:9078 http://hdl.handle.net/10560/3848 BIOL / Biology Illinois Institute of Technology en In Copyright http://rightsstatements.org/page/InC/1.0/ Restricted Access