Analytical protocols for the determination of sulphur compounds characteristic of the metabolism of Chlorobium limicola

• Determination of correct sulphur mass balances in C. limicola cultures.
• A RP HPLC method for fast analysis of sulphur in C. limicola cultures has been set.
• Results from HPLC method have been compared with ones from chloroform extraction.
• Results from colorimetric method for sulphide compared with ones from GC-FPD.

Chlorobium limicola belongs to the green sulphur bacteria that has a potential for technological applications such as biogas clean up oxidising hydrogen sulphide to elemental sulphur through photosynthetic process. In the present work, analytical methods are described for the determination of different sulphur species in C. limicola cultures – sulphide by GC-FPD, sulphate by ionic HPLC and elemental sulphur by RP HPLC. The latter method eliminates the need for chloroform extraction of water suspensions of elemental sulphur. Data from sulphide and elemental sulphur analyses have been compared with ones coming from more traditional analytical methodologies.

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