LARGE-SCALE CULTIVATION OF THIOBACILLUS DENITRIFICANS TO SUPPORT PILOT AND FIELD-TESTS OF A BIOAUGMENTATION PROCESS FOR MICROBIAL OXIDATION OF SULFIDES

Thiobacillus denitrificans strain F has been successfully cultivated at a 1000-gal scale in a flocculated form that could be recovered by gravity settling. Repeated subculturing at this scale did not result in loss of flocculation, although only 45% of the total biomass in each batch prodtiction run was sufficiently flocculated to be recovered by gravity settling. Production costs for nutrients and utilities averaged $0.413/g dry wt of biomass recovered. Future work will focus on improving biomass recovery. © 1994 Humana Press Inc.