Concomitant aerobic biodegradation of benzene and thiophene

Journal Article · Fri May 01 04:00:00 EDT 1998 · Environmental Toxicology and Chemistry

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1002/etc.5620170512· OSTI ID:675483

Dyreborg, S; Arvin, E; Broholm, K ^[1]

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1. Technical Univ. of Denmark, Lyngby (Denmark)

The concomitant aerobic biodegradation of benzene and thiophene was investigated in microcosm experiments using a groundwater enrichment culture. Benzene was biodegraded within 1 d, whereas thiophene could not be biodegraded as the sole source of carbon and energy. Some interesting phenomena were observed when both benzene and thiophene were present. In most cases, removal of thiophene was observed, and the removal occurred concomitantly with the biodegradation of benzene, suggesting that benzene was used as a primary substrate in the cometabolic biodegradation of thiophene. No biodegradation of the two compounds was observed for some combinations of concentrations, suggesting that thiophene could act as an inhibitor to benzene biodegradation. However, this effect could be overcome if more benzene was added to the microcosm. Residual concentrations of benzene and thiophene were observed in some microcosms and the data indicated that the biodegradation of the two compounds stopped when a critical threshold ratio between the concentrations of thiophene and benzene was reached. This ratio varied between 10 and 20. Results from modeling the biodegradation data suggested that thiophene was cometabolized concomitantly with the biodegradation of benzene and that the biodegradation may be described by a modified model based on a traditional model with an inhibition term incorporated.

• Sponsoring Organization: USDOE
• OSTI ID: 675483
• Journal Information: Environmental Toxicology and Chemistry, Journal Name: Environmental Toxicology and Chemistry Journal Issue: 5 Vol. 17; ISSN ETOCDK; ISSN 0730-7268
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES
BENZENE
BIODEGRADATION
GROUND WATER
MATHEMATICAL MODELS
MICROCOSMS
REMEDIAL ACTION
THIOPHENE