Research Projects

The increasing demand for environmentally-friendly transportation fuels and strict environmental regulations have put pressure on crude oil refining to minimize air pollution. The emission of toxic organosulfur compounds, such as dibenzothiophene (DBT), benzothiophene, and 4,6-DBT, from crude oil/fossil fuel combustion has led to the attention of researchers to advanced research in this field. Conventional hydrodesulfurization (HDS) is costly, requires metal catalysts, and requires highly specified setups. Microorganisms assisted biodesulfurization (BDS) is a promising technology that offers an eco-friendly way to achieve lower sulphur levels by inducing selective metabolism of sulfur without degrading the CC carbon skeleton. Several microorganisms have been isolated that utilize DBT and its alkylated derivatives as sulfur sources and desulfurize it to 2-hydroxybiphenyl using conventional 4S-pathway. However, fungal desulfurization has not been reported substantially despite their ability to metabolize a wide range of chemical compounds and aromatic hydrocarbons. Arthrinium malaysianum fungus has been reported to produce many industrially relevant enzymes that are significantly up-regulated upon 2-deoxy glucose induced stress conditions and possesses high capacity of heavy metals adsorption. This fungus could be explored for enzymatic BDS of petroleum derivatives and oil, aiming to unravel novel BDS pathways and achieve a green complementary approach towards low sulfur-fuel production.