Quantifying the effect of sorption and bioavailability of hydrophobic organic contaminants

Conference · Sat Dec 31 04:00:00 EST 1994

OSTI ID:491021

Zhang, W; Bouwer, E ^[1]; Cunningham, A ^[2]

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1. Johns Hopkins Univ., Baltimore, MD (United States). Dept. of Geography and Environmental Engineering
2. Montana State Univ., Bozeman, MT (United States). Center for Biofilm Engineering

In-situ bioremediation has been applied successfully at a few sites. Several restrictions presently exist which could greatly limit the effectiveness of this promising technology. Hydrophobic organic contaminants tend to sorb onto soil. However, microorganisms are most effective in utilizing substrates from the aqueous phase. Sorption tends to separate the direct contact between microorganisms and contaminants necessary for biodegradation to occur. A series of experiments, which represented scenarios with fast sorption/desorption, slow sorption/desorption, mass transfer across boundary layer and mass transfer within attached microorganisms (biofilm), was conducted to demonstrate the concentration effect and the mass transfer effect. A method has been developed to quantify bioavailability of organic contaminants in aquatic environments. Bioavailability Factor (B{sub f}), a dimensionless parameter derived from mathematical models and verified by experimental results, has been formulated to describe the impact of equilibrium sorption, nonequilibrium sorption, and mass transfer processes on the rate and extent of biodegradation of petroleum hydrocarbons.

• OSTI ID: 491021
• Report Number(s): CONF-9406250--
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

02 PETROLEUM
BIODEGRADATION
BIOLOGICAL AVAILABILITY
HYDROCARBONS
IN-SITU PROCESSING
MASS TRANSFER
MATHEMATICAL MODELS
OIL SPILLS
REMEDIAL ACTION
SORPTION
TECHNOLOGY ASSESSMENT