摘要：Volatile organic chemicals present at Superfund sites preferentially partition into the soil gas and may be available for microbial degradation. A simple mass transfer model for biodegradation for volatile substrates has been developed for the aerobic decomposition of aromatic and aliphatic hydrocarbons. The mass transfer analysis calculates diffusive fluxes from soil gas through water and membrane films and into the cell. This model predicts an extreme sensitivity of potential biodegradation rates to the air-water partition coefficients of the compounds. Aromatic hydrocarbons are removed rapidly while the aliphatic hydrocarbons are much slower by orders of magnitude. Furthermore, oxygen transfer is likely to limit aromatic hydrocarbon degradation rates. The model presents results that cast doubt on the practicality of using methane or propane for the co-metabolic destruction of trichloroethylene in a gas phase bioreactor. Toluene as a primary substrate has better mass transfer characteristics to achieve more efficient trichloroethylene degradation. Hence, in sites where these contaminants coexist, bioremediation could be improved. Full text Full text is available as a scanned copy of the original print version. Get a printable copy (PDF file) of the complete article (639K), or click on a page image below to browse page by page. Links to PubMed are also available for Selected References . 75 76 77 78
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