Evaluation of a soil slurry reactor system for treating soil contaminated with munitions compounds

Conference · Sun May 01 04:00:00 EDT 1994

OSTI ID:10150183

Boopathy, R; Manning, J; Montemagno, C ^[1]; Kulpa, C F ^[2]

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1. Argonne National Lab., IL (United States)
2. Notre Dame Univ., IN (United States). Dept. of Biological Sciences

Two 0.5-L semicontinuous soil slurry reactors were operated for seven months to evaluate the performance of the slurry reactor system in bioremediating soil contaminated with munitions compounds. Nitrogen and carbon were supplemented. The soil slurry was mixed continuously and aerated 10 min/day. Ten percent of the contaminated soil was replaced every week. The 2,4,6-trinitrotoluene (TNT) concentration in soil began to drop after 15 days of treatment, falling to less than 0.5 mg/kg from 7800 mg/kg. Total plate counts in both reactors indicated that the bacterial population was maintained, with an average plate count of about 10{sup 8} CFU/mL. The soil slurry was slightly acidic. In addition to TNT, the slurry reactor also removed the other munitions compounds trinitrobenzene (TNB), 2,4-dinitrotoluene (2,4-DNT), RDX, and HMX. Radiolabeling studies on the reactor biomass showed that 23% of [{sup C}14]TNT was mineralized, while 27% was used as biomass and 8% was adsorbed on to the soil. The rest of the [{sup 14}C]TNT was accounted for as TNT metabolites. Increasing the frequency of soil replacement from once to two or three times weekly did not affect the TNT removal rates. However, the slurry system showed signs of stress, with highly acidic conditions and low oxygen uptake rates.

• Research Organization: Argonne National Lab., IL (United States)
• Sponsoring Organization: USDOE, Washington, DC (United States); Department of Defense, Washington, DC (United States)
• DOE Contract Number: W-31109-ENG-38
• OSTI ID: 10150183
• Report Number(s): ANL/ER/CP--82795; CONF-9405149--1; ON: DE94011517
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

052001
054000
11 NUCLEAR FUEL CYCLE AND FUEL MATERIALS
12 MANAGEMENT OF RADIOACTIVE AND NON-RADIOACTIVE WASTES FROM NUCLEAR FACILITIES
BACTERIA
HAZARDOUS MATERIALS
HEALTH AND SAFETY
MILITARY FACILITIES
MINERALIZATION
ORDNANCE
REMEDIAL ACTION
SLURRY REACTORS
SOILS
TNT
WASTE PROCESSING