Cometabolism of chloroethene mixtures by biofilms grown on phenol
- Univ. of Missouri, Columbia, MO (United States). Dept. of Civil Engineering
- Univ. of Texas, Austin, TX (United States). Dept. of Civil Engineering
Cometabolic biological treatment of water contaminated with chlorinated solvents is attractive because the contaminants are destroyed. An aerobic, sequencing biofilm reactor using phenol as the growth and cometabolism-inducing substrate was developed to treat water contaminated with trichloroethene (TCE) to a level below the US Environmental Protection Agency drinking water standard of 5 {micro}g/L. Cometabolism of chloroethene mixtures was of interest in this research because natural anaerobic dehalogenation of tetrachloroethene (PCE) and TCE produce groundwater contaminant mixtures that include dichloroethenes (DCE) and vinyl chloride (VC). Recently, research efforts to stimulate reductive dehalogenation of PCE and TCE have been promising, but the complete dehalogenation of lesser-chlorinated ethenes to ethene remains, in practice, a relatively slow process. Combinations of anaerobic dehalogenation and aerobic cometabolic oxidation processes ultimately may be the best means to completely treat the water (or remediate the aquifer) in a reasonable period of time. This paper addresses the ability of aerobic biofilms grown with phenol to cometabolize TCE and chloroethene mixtures, either in situ, by pump-and-treat, or by a combination thereof. Also, the effect of two reactor packings on biofilm production and endogenous TCE removal was evaluated in an effort to improve reactor performance.
- OSTI ID:
- 474283
- Report Number(s):
- CONF-950483--; ISBN 1-57477-005-5
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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