Investigation of Microbial Sulfate Reduction in Engineered Systems
As the primary cause of industrial gas inhalation deaths in the US, the generation of H2S by sulfate reducing microorganisms (SRM) poses significant health and environmental risks.
In the case of the oil industry, H2S biogenesis results in a variety of oil recovery problems, including health and safety, contamination of crude oil, metal corrosion, and precipitation of metal sulfides that plug pumping wells.
We are investigating the causes of H2S generation during oil recovery processes and identifying novel strategies to prevent this.
We are running flow through column studies on a baywater/sediment system to investigate the effects of various treatments on the geochemistry and the microbial community in a sulfidogenic system.