Process conditions affect microbial diversity and activity in a haloalkaline biodesulfurization system.

Thiopaq Ultra biodesulfurization systems are updated biodesulfurization systems. The have an additional anoxic reactor compared to conventional ones and have demonstrated better selectivity for sulfur formation. We studied 16S rRNA based amplicon sequences from a) cDNA ( from extracted RNA) and therefore presenting active microbial composition b) extracted DNA representing total/present microbial composition. The sequencing was performed for 6 different operational runs operated at different settings of HRT and sulfide load in the newly added anoxic reactor. The aim of the study was to find the active microbial composition and study how the process conditions affect the microbial composition in the Thiopaq Ultra BD system.