Through the dissimilatory sulfate reduction pathway, sulfate can be reduced either bacterially (bacterial sulfate reduction) or inorganically (thermochemical sulfate reduction). This pathway involves the reduction of sulfate by organic compounds to produce hydrogen sulfide, which occurs in both processes.
The main products and reactants of bacterial sulfate reduction (BSR) and thermochemical sulfate reduction (TSR) are very similar. For both, various organic compounds and dissolved sulfate are the reactants, and the products or by-products are as follows: HS, CO, carbonates, elemental sulfur and metal sulfides. However, the reactive organic compounds differ for BSR and TSR because of the mutually exclusive temperature regimes. Organic acids are the main organic reactants for BSR and branched/n-alkanes are the main organic reactants for TSR. The inorganic reaction products in BSR and TSR are HS (HS) and  (CO).
These processes occur because there are two very different thermal regimes in which sulfate is reduced, particularly in low-temperature and high-temperature environments. BSR usually occurs at lower temperatures from 0−80 °C, while TSR happens at much higher temperatures around 100–140 °C. Temperatures for TSR are not as well defined; the lowest confirmed temperature is 127 °C and the highest temperatures occur in settings around 160−180 °C. These two different regimes appear because at higher temperatures most sulfate-reducing microbes can no longer metabolize due to the denaturation of proteins or deactivation of enzymes, so TSR takes over. However, in hot sediments around hydrothermal vents BSR can happen at temperatures up to 110 °C.
BSR and TSR occur at different depths. BSR takes place in low-temperature environments, which are shallower settings such as oil and gas fields. BSR can also take place in modern marine sedimentary environments such as stratified inland seas, continental shelves, organic-rich deltas, and hydrothermal sediments which have intense microbial sulfate reduction because of the high concentration of dissolved sulfate in the seawater. Additionally, the high amounts of hydrogen sulfide found in oil and gas fields is thought to arise from the oxidation of petroleum hydrocarbons by sulfate. Such reactions are known to occur by microbial processes but it is generally accepted that TSR is responsible for the bulk of these reactions, especially in deep or hot reservoirs. Thus, TSR occurs in deep reservoirs where the temperatures are much higher. BSR is geologically instantaneous in most geologic settings, while TSR occurs at rates in the order of hundreds of thousands of years. Although much slower than BSR, even TSR appears to be a geologically fairly fast process.
BSR in shallow environments and TSR in deep reservoirs are key processes in the oceanic sulfur cycle.  Approximately, 10% (of the total gas) of HS is produced in BSR settings, whereas 90% of the HS is produced in TSR settings. If there is more than a few percent of HS in any deep reservoir, then it is assumed that TSR has taken over. This is due to the fact that thermal cracking of hydrocarbons doesn't provide more than 3% of HS. The amount of HS is affected by several factors such as, the availability of organic reactants and sulfate and the presence/availability of base and transition metals.