Investigation of Microbial Respirometry for Monitoring Natural Sulfide Abatement in Geothermal Cooling Tower Basins

Pryfogle, Peter A.

Idaho National Laboratory

关键词: Sulfur Compounds Cooling Water;    Monitoring;    Cooling Towers;    Oxygen;    Carbon Dioxide;   

DOI  :  10.2172/966166
RP-ID  :  INL/EXT-09-16473
RP-ID  :  DE-AC07-99ID-13727
RP-ID  :  966166

美国|英语

来源: UNT Digital Library

【 摘 要 】

Geothermal plant operators are interested in investigating the ability of micro-organisms found in the cooling tower basin to metabolize and cycle sulfide to less toxic sulfur compounds. If the growth or activity of the organisms participating in sulfur-oxidation could be selectively enhanced, then hydrogen sulfide could be naturally abated in the cooling basin, substantially reducing the costs associated with the chemicals used for abatement. The use of respirometry has been proposed as a technique for monitoring the response of the microbial populations found in geothermal cooling towers to various conditions, including the addition of nutrients such as nitrogen and phosphorus. Respiro-metry is a manometric measurement of dissolved gases that are in equilibrium in a con-fined sample volume. Since microbes expire varying amounts of carbon dioxide or oxygen as they metabolize nutrients, this technique can be used to evaluate their activities in process streams. This report describes a series of experiments designed to determine the suitability of respirometry for tracking microbial activity for evaluating and enhancing natural abatement processes in geothermal cooling basins.