A bench-scale study on biodegradation and volatilization of ethylbenzoate in aquifers

Experiments were conducted to investigate the fate of ethylbenzoate and soil microorganisms in shallow aquifers. Biodegradation and volatilization have been identified as the major mechanisms in attenuating ethylbenzoate in contaminated soils. The rate of volatilization was experimentally found to be limited by gas-phase diffusion. The parameters of an available model, i.e., the maximum specific growth rate and the saturation constant, have been estimated by fitting the model to the experimental data obtained with ethylbenzoate as the carbon source; the former was 0.49 h⁻¹, and the latter was 62 mg L⁻¹. Various facets of biodegradation, including the effects of mass-transfer resistance and initial distribution of microorganisms, have been numerically analyzed on the basis of the model.     

生物地耕法降解含油污泥的研究

对含油质量分数为9.0%和10.2%的油泥进行生物地耕法的研究。结果表明,生物降解120d后,油泥残油质量分数分别由9.0%和10.2%降至3.1%和4.0%,石油降解率分别为65.6%和60.8%;同时利用气相色谱-质谱分析生物降解前后含油污泥中饱和烃的组分和质量分数变化,含油质量分数为9.0%和10.2%油泥中的长链烷烃分别减少39.8%和42.2%。     

中小河流水质特征及修复方法探讨

考察了上海市几条中小河流的水质特征及生物膜对漕河泾和青春河水的净化效果，对污染河流修复方法作了讨论。结果表明，单靠生化方法难以达到修复中小河流的目的，可采用先生化后混凝或先混凝后生化的方法对其进行修复。     

In silico bioremediation of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon: A frontier in environmental chemistry

In recent years, the number of studies in the field of bioremediation has been growing steadily. Although a large number of studies provide information that is highly detailed and offer great amounts of knowledge on a given subject, the downside is that the hunt for more information requires the combined efforts of researchers from many areas, which are becoming increasingly difficult to attain. In this review, we present an overview of recent work investigating enzyme degradation of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons. In the first part, this review examines several of the new enzymes able to degrade pollutants, with special attention being given to those with a well-resolved structure. The second part explores some of the most recent work in which computational approaches, such as molecular dynamics, docking, density functional theory and database retrieval, have been employed to study enzymes with specific bioremediation activities.     

Bench-scale and field-scale evaluation of catechol 2,3-dioxygenase specific primers for monitoring BTX bioremediation

The objective of this work was to test a molecular genetic method for in situ monitoring of aerobic benzene, toluene, and xylene (BTX) biodegrading microorganisms. Catechol 2,3-dioxygenase (C23DO) genes occur in bacteria that biodegrade benzene, toluene, xylenes, phenol, biphenyl, and naphthalene. A competitive quantitative polymerase chain reaction (QC-PCR) technique using a single set of primers specific for an entire subfamily of C23DO genes was recently developed. To determine whether bacteria containing these C23DO genes actually exist in environments contaminated by BTX, aerobic microcosms containing previously uncontaminated soil were amended with different aromatic hydrocarbons and DNA extracts were analyzed by QC-PCR for C23DO genes. Anaerobic microcosms were established to confirm that oxygen was also necessary for the enrichment of C23DO genes. Field testing was done at two sites undergoing monitored natural attenuation. In microcosm experiments naphthalene, m-xylene, and p-xylene strongly enriched for C23DO genes while benzene, toluene, and o-xylene produced only transient, weakly detectable genes. In the field study, C23DO genes were detected in groundwater samples contaminated with either xylenes or naphthalene. The results of this study demonstrated that molecular genetic techniques can provide an accurate and rapid method to detect microorganisms capable of aromatic hydrocarbon biodegradation. Such a technique would be useful for monitoring the effectiveness of aeration technologies and for documenting microbial processes for monitored natural attenuation.     

Biokinetic modeling of in situ bioremediation of BTX compounds-impact of process variables and scaleup implications

The impact of three process parameters, i.e. ground water velocity, oxygen-to-BTX mass ratio, and benzene, toluene and xylene (BTX) concentrations on first-order biodegradation kinetics in a pilot-scale in situ bioremediation system was assessed. Generally, first-order biodegradation coefficients decreased with ground water velocity, and increased with hydrogen peroxide dose and BTX concentration. First-order biodegradation rate coefficients for benzene, toluene, and o-xylene varied from 0.3 to 0.81, 0.24 to 0.72, and 0.21 to 0.63 d(-1), respectively. Biomass-specific first-order rate coefficients were insensitive to ground water velocity, and decreased with increasing BTX concentrations. At 10mg/l BTX concentration, the specific first-order coefficients increased with peroxide dose. However, at the 50mg/l BTX concentration and a peroxide dose of 1020 mg/l, a 30-70% reduction in specific first-order biodegradation coefficients was observed. BTX biodegradation kinetics in this pilot-scale system were approximately one-to-two orders of magnitude slower than in soil microcosms and mixed culture bioreactors, and about 200-300% higher than full-scale systems.     

Effect of uranium (VI) on two sulphate-reducing bacteria cultures from a uranium mine site

This work was conducted to assess the impact of uranium (VI) on sulphate-reducing bacteria (SRB) communities obtained from environmental samples collected on the Portuguese uranium mining area of Urgeiriça. Culture U was obtained from a sediment, while culture W was obtained from sludge from the wetland of that mine. Temperature gradient gel electrophoresis (TGGE) was used to monitor community changes under uranium stress conditions. TGGE profiles of dsrB gene fragment demonstrated that the initial cultures were composed of SRB species affiliated with Desulfovibrio desulfuricans, Desulfovibrio vulgaris and Desulfomicrobium spp. (sample U), and by species related to D. desulfuricans (sample W). A drastic change in SRB communities was observed as a result of uranium (VI) exposure. Surprisingly, SRB were not detected in the uranium removal communities. Such findings emphasize the need of monitoring the dominant populations during bio-removal studies. TGGE and phylogenetic analysis of the 16S rRNA gene fragment revealed that the uranium removal consortia are composed by strains affiliated to Clostridium genus, Caulobacteraceae and Rhodocyclaceae families. Therefore, these communities can be attractive candidates for environmental biotechnological applications associated to uranium removal.     

Changes in polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon availability in River Tyne sediment following bioremediation treatments or activated carbon amendment

Bioremediation and activated carbon (AC) amendment were compared as remediation strategies for sediment from the River Tyne containing 16.4 ± 7.3 μg/g polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) and approximately 5% coal particles by total dry sediment weight. Unamended, nutrient amended (biostimulated) and nutrient and Pseudomonas putida amended (bioaugmented) sediment microcosms failed to show a significant decrease in total sediment PAH concentrations over a one month period. Polyethylene passive (PE) samplers were embedded for 21 days in these sediment microcosms in order to measure the available portion of PAHs and accumulated 4.70 ± 0.25, 12.43 ± 1.78, and 23.49 ± 2.73 μg PAHs/g PE from the unamended, biostimulated, and bioaugmented microcosms, respectively. Higher PAH uptake by PE samplers in biostimulated and bioaugmented microcosms coincided with slower degradation of spiked phenanthrene in sediment-free filtrate from these microcosms compared to filtrate from the unamended microcosms. Microbial community analysis revealed changes in the bacterial community directly following the addition of nutrients, but the added P. putida community failed to establish itself. Addition of 2% by dry sediment weight activated carbon reduced PAH uptake by PE samplers to 0.28 ± 0.01 μg PAHs/g PE, a greater than 90% reduction compared to the unamended microcosms.