Degradation of sulfur heterocycles in prudhoe bay crude oil by soil enrichments

Soil was incubated in mineral medium with Prudhoe Bay crude oil at 20 °C under shake-flask conditions. The aromatic fractions of oil extracted from these cultures were analyzed by capillary GC using a S-specific detector. Without nutrient supplementation, these cultures degraded alkyl benzothiophenes, dibenzothiophene, the C_l-dibenzothiophenes and some C₂ dibenzothiophenes after 27 days incubation. when supplemented with N and P, most of the C₂ dibenzothiophenes and some C₃-dibenzothiophenes were also degraded. The following orders of susceptibility to microbial attack were observed in homologous series: (a) C₂ benzothiophene > C₃-benzothiophenes,(b)dibenzothiophene > C₁-dibenzothiophenes > C₂ dibenzothiophenes > C₃-dibenzothiophenes.