A fungus has been found that can remove sulphur from crude oil more easily than conventional refining methods.
Jalal Shayegan and his colleagues at Sharif University of Technology in Tehran discovered the fungus Stachybotrys sp. while studying the microfauna of soil samples that were continuously being contaminated by oil. When they exposed the fungus to heavy crude oil samples, it removed up to 76% of the sulphur present.
Traditional sulphur-removal methods generally require temperatures above 400 °C and high pressures. The fungus, which functions perfectly well at 30 °C and atmospheric pressure, is expected to drastically improve the efficiency of oil refining methods.
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Biochemistry: Fungal facilitation. Nature 455, 1011 (2008). https://doi.org/10.1038/4551011a
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/4551011a