Table 1.

Growth properties of the M82 culture incubated at different sulfate concentrations

Initial sulfate concentration (mM)	Hexadecane consumption (mmol)	Sulfate consumption (mmol)a	Methane production (mmol)b	Recovery of hexadecane carbon (%)	Maximum specific methane production rate (month−1)	(Sulfate reduction + methane production)/hexadecane consumed
0.5	0.27 ± 0.05	0.08 ± 0.01	2.86 ± 0.02	91.7 ± 17.3	0.41 ± 0.005	11.23 ± 2.12
2	0.29 ± 0.03	0.19 ± 0.08	2.71 ± 0.01	82.1 ± 7.5	0.27 ± 0.08	10.06 ± 0.92
4	0.29 ± 0.06	0.67 ± 0.01	2.48 ± 0.49	89.7 ± 5.1	0.30 ± 0.09	10.99 ± 0.63
10	0.27 ± 0.05	1.62 ± 0.1	1.61 ± 0.24	101.0 ± 9.7	0.23 ± 0.04	12.37 ± 1.18
15	0.31 ± 0.01	1.95 ± 0.08	1.68 ± 0.13	96.9 ± 5.5	0.22 ± 0.02	11.87 ± 0.67
25	0.33 ± 0.01	2.66 ± 0.11	1.27 ± 0.04	98.1 ± 3.6	0.20 ± 0.02	12.01 ± 0.45

^aThe detected sulfate at day 421 minus the background sulfate (0.096 mmol)

^bThe detected methane at day 421 minus the background methane (0.66 mmol)