Comparative analysis of microbial composition of Biodesulfurization plants

Haloalkaline biodesulfurization process is applied across the world for removing sulfide from various industrial gas waste streams. In biodesulfurization process, the sulfide oxidizing bacteria convert sulfide into elemental sulfur. Novel sulfide oxidizing bacteria have been isolated from these reactors in the past. Also, some studies have indicated the identity of dominant bacteria in some of these plants. In our presented study, we studied 8 full scale and 2 pilot scale runs to have the comprehensive understanding of the microbial composition of these reactors. We performed 16S rRNA gene based amplicon sequencing to answer questions on microbial diversity and to find out the shared microbial community by the plants.