Anaerobic and aerobic/anaerobic treatment for tetrachloroethylene (PCE)

Conference · Sun Dec 31 04:00:00 UTC 1995

OSTI ID:474287

Guiot, S R; Kuang, X; Beaulieu, C; Corriveau, A; Hawari, J ^[1]

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1. National Research Council of Canada, Montreal, Quebec (Canada). Biotechnology Research Inst.

The reductive dechlorination of tetrachloroethylene (PCE) was studied in a laboratory-scale upflow anaerobic sludge bed (UASB) reactor using sucrose, lactic acid, propionic acid, and methanol as cosubstrates. Parallel experiments were performed to compare the novel coupled anaerobic/aerobic reactor with the conventional UASB. More than 95% of PCE was transformed in both reactors. Complete dechlorination in the UASB reactor decreased with increased PCE loading, declining from 45 to 19%. Minor concentrations of trichloroethylene and of undegraded PCE were detected in the liquid effluent throughout the experiment. Dichloroethylene was the dominant metabolite of all PCE loads, while vinyl chloride was not detected in the liquid effluent. For both reactor types, increased PCE loading led to lower chemical oxygen demand (COD) removal rates caused by a decrease in the specific acetate utilization rate. This, combined with a decline of the specific total PCE dechlorination activity, may cause long-term stability problems in the UASB reactor. The coupled reactor demonstrated higher specific PCE degradation rates at all PCE loading levels and a higher specific total dechlorination rate at the highest PCE loading. These characteristics may promote long-term stability of the coupled reactor system.

• OSTI ID: 474287
• Report Number(s): CONF-950483--; ISBN 1-57477-005-5
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES
ANAEROBIC CONDITIONS
BENCH-SCALE EXPERIMENTS
BIODEGRADATION
BIOREACTORS
CHLORINATED ALIPHATIC HYDROCARBONS
IN-SITU PROCESSING
REMEDIAL ACTION