摘要：In order to examine anaerobic biodegradations of organic compounds in sewage sediments, a simple method for the determination of H2, H2S, CO2 and CH4 was established by use of a headspace technique. First, the production of these gaseous metabolites from glucose was studied in anaerobic aquatic sediments. H2 was transiently detected in the early stage of biodegradation, followed by the production of H2S. After that, a large amount of CH4 was produced. Sodium alkyl sulfate (AS) was also degraded to CO2 and CH4, but H2 was not detected in the course of biodegradation. The addition of glucose enhanced the anaerobic degradation of AS. Assuming that the final products were CO2 and CH4, the extent of biodegradation of glucose, glucose plus AS and AS was calculated to be 67-80, 76-77 and 51-62%, respectively, of the total organic carbon.
