Cleaner Oil with Fungii?

Newly discovered fungus strips pollutants from oil reveals a new possible ally in the effort to burn cleaner fuel- a fungus discovered in Iran. The fungus is able to grow in crude oil and can metabilize sulpher and nitrogen pollutant compounds. One of the advantagous of fungus useage would be the much lower temperatures at which such compounds could be removed. Currently high temperatures are required to remove sulpher and nitrogen.

Removing sulpher from crude oil was known to be possible through the use of what are called desulphurising bacteria. In a "contest" between fungus and bacteria fungus came out as the more efficient sulpher remover. However, chemically based technologies rather than biological ones may win out in the end. A simple ester was shown to be a more rapid remover of sulpher from diesel fuel. Stay tuned.