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REVIEW article

Front. Bioeng. Biotechnol.
Sec. Synthetic Biology
Volume 12 - 2024 | doi: 10.3389/fbioe.2024.1482270
This article is part of the Research Topic Microorganisms and Microbial Technologies for Industry and Environmental Protection View all 3 articles

Genetic and metabolic engineering approaches for enhanced biodesulfurization of petroleum fractions

Provisionally accepted
Asheemita Bagchi Asheemita Bagchi 1Preeti Srivastava Preeti Srivastava 2*
  • 1 Department of Biochemical Engineering and Biotechnology, Indian Institute of Technology Delhi, Delhi, NCT of Delhi, India
  • 2 Indian Institute of Technology Delhi, New Delhi, India

The final, formatted version of the article will be published soon.

    Sulfur, an abundant component in crude oil, has been known to cause severe damage to the environment, human health and poison the catalysts used in combustion engines. Hydrodesulfurization, the conventionally used method, is not sufficient to remove the thiophenes like Dibenzothiophene (DBT) and other aromatic heterocyclics. The push for "ultra-clean" fuels, with sulfur content less than 15ppm drives the need for deep desulfurization. Thus, in conjunction with hydrodesulfurization, efficient, and eco-friendly ways of deep desulfurization, like biodesulfurization will be desirable. In biodesulfurization naturally desulfurizing microorganisms are used, with genetic engineering and biotechnology, to remove the sulfur content of crude oil below 15ppm. In this review, we describe genetic engineering and metabolic engineering approaches reported to date to develop more efficient ways to carry out biodesulfurization to make it a practically applicable reality.

    Keywords: Desulfurization, Biodesulfurization, Mutagenesis, surface display, 4S pathway, dsz enzymes, RACHITT

    Received: 18 Aug 2024; Accepted: 10 Oct 2024.

    Copyright: © 2024 Bagchi and Srivastava. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

    * Correspondence: Preeti Srivastava, Indian Institute of Technology Delhi, New Delhi, India

    Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.