The mechanochemical dechlorination of pentachlorophenol (PCP) was studied using CaO and SiO2 powder as additives. The effects of the milling time and additives on the dechlorination rate were investigated. The resulting product was characterized by X-ray diffraction (XRD), Fourier transform infrared spectra (FT-IR), thermogravimetric analysis (TG) and ion chromatography (IC). It is found that g...

The reductive dechlorination of polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) by anaerobic bacteria has recently been established as an important environmental fate of these compounds. This process removes chlorines directly from the biphenyl ring with replacement by hydrogen, resulting in a product mixture in which the average number of chlorines per biphenyl is reduced. In this study, dechlorination of co...

A bacterial mixed culture reductively dechlorinating trichlorobenzenes was established in a defined, synthetic mineral medium without any complex additions and with pyruvate as the carbon and energy source. The culture was maintained over 39 consecutive transfers of small inocula into fresh media, enriching the dechlorinating activity. In situ probing with fluorescence-labeled rRNA-targeted oli...

1,1,2-trichloroethane (1,1,2-TCA) has become a common groundwater pollutant due to historically extensive utilization, improper disposal, as well as from incomplete dechlorination of 1,1,2,2-tetrachloroethane. Currently, limited information is available on microbial detoxification of 1,1,2-TCA. Desulfitobacterium sp. strain PR, which was isolated from an anaerobic bioreactor maintained to dechl...

Oxygen-sensitive Dehalococcoides bacteria play crucial roles in detoxification of chlorinated contaminants (e.g., chlorinated ethenes), and bioremediation monitoring relies on quantification of Dehalococcoides DNA and RNA biomarkers. To explore the effects of oxygen on Dehalococcoides activity, viability, and biomarker quantification, batch experiments with a tetrachloroethene-to-ethene dechlor...

2-Bromoethanesulfonate (BES) inhibited the reductive dechlorination of chloroethenes in several sediment-free enrichment cultures in the absence of methanogenic archaea. Archaeon-specific PCR primers confirmed the absence of methanogens in the enrichment cultures. BES should not be used to attribute dechlorination activities to methanogens.

Strain SF3, a gram-negative, anaerobic, motile, short curved rod that grows by coupling the reductive dechlorination of 2-chlorophenol (2-CP) to the oxidation of acetate, was isolated from San Francisco Bay sediment. Strain SF3 grew at concentrations of NaCl ranging from 0.16 to 2.5%, but concentrations of KCl above 0. 32% inhibited growth. The isolate used acetate, fumarate, lactate, propionat...

A major obstacle in the implementation of the reductive dechlorination process at chloroethene-contaminated sites is the accumulation of the intermediate vinyl chloride (VC), a proven human carcinogen. To shed light on the microbiology involved in the final critical dechlorination step, a sediment-free, nonmethanogenic, VC-dechlorinating enrichment culture was derived from tetrachloroethene (PC...

Chloroethenes like tetrachloroethene (PCE) are the most prevalent groundwater contaminants in the USA. Their presence as nonaqueous phase liquids (NAPLs) makes remediation difficult. Among options for NAPL cleanup, co-solvent injection has demonstrated success. However, the process has the potential to leave considerable residue of the co-solvent as well as residual chloroethene. Our rationale ...

The microbial reductive dechlorination kinetics of pentachloroaniline (PCA) and less chlorinated anilines (CAs) were investigated with a mixed, fermentative/ methanogenic culture. Batch dechlorination assays were performed with all available CAs at an initial concentration of 3 microM, and an incubation temperature of 22 degrees C. Dechlorination of PCA, two tetrachloroanilines (2,3,4,5- and 2,...