Microbial Degradation of Quinoline in Heavy Oil

Abstract

For the purpose of removing nitrogen atoms from heavy oil by microbial procedures, the first approach was made to obtain microorganisms capable of degrading quinoline as the N-containing model compound by enrichment culture. One iso-late, identified as Pseudomonas putida Q26, was chosen for further study. The degrada-tion of quinoline by this strain yielded initially 2-hydroxyquinoline and then 8-hydroxycoumarin, resulting finally in the complete degradation. This strain was able to degrade quinoline and a few methylquinoline in a complex basic fraction of coal-liquids. It was observed that microbial treatment decreased nitrogen content of the basic fraction of hydrogenated recycle solvent derived from Taiheiyo coal.