Sulfide reducing bacteria (SRB) are obligate anaerobic bacteria that can be broken into two broad nutritional groups (7):
- Can achieve partial oxidation of a limited range of carbon sources, such as lactate to acetate,
- Capable of oxidizing a wide range of carbon sources, such as fatty acids, to acetate or completely to CO2 (7).
Hydrogen can be a substrate or a product for sulfate (or Sulfide)-reducing bacteria. Most SRB do not compete well with facultative anaerobic bacteria that use nitrate as a hydrogen acceptor.
A few facultative anaerobic Thiobacilli, such as T.denitrificans, can also carry out anaerobic respiration, using lactate and nitrate as the terminal electron acceptor, while oxidizing the elemental sulfur to sulfate as long as a source of ammonia is present.
Other bacteria that oxidize hydrogen sulfide to sulfur include: Chromatium and Chlorobium and Beggiatoa (19).
We use our OxyPaks XL to compete with these bacteria or our De-Sulph-A-Nator to bind up the sulfur in the environment.