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Low and high acetate amendments are equally as effective at promoting complete dechlorination of trichloroethylene (TCE)

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Abstract

Experiments with trichloroethylene-contaminated aquifer material demonstrated that TCE, cis-DCE, and VC were completely degraded with concurrent Fe(III) or Fe(III) and sulfate reduction when acetate was amended at stoichiometric concentration; competing TEAPs did not inhibit ethene production. Adding 10× more acetate did not increase the rate or extent of TCE reduction, but only increased methane production. Enrichment cultures demonstrated that ~90 μM TCE or ~22 μM VC was degraded primarily to ethene within 20 days with concurrent Fe(III) or Fe(III) + sulfate reduction. The dechlorination rates were comparable between the low and high acetate concentrations (0.36 vs 0.34 day−1, respectively), with a slightly slower rate in the 10× acetate amended incubations. Methane accumulated to 13.5 (±0.5) μmol/tube in the TCE-degrading incubations with 10× acetate, and only 1.4 (±0.1) μmol/tube with low acetate concentration. Methane accumulated to 16 (±1.5) μmol/tube in VC-degrading enrichment with 10× acetate and 2 (±0.1) μmol/tube with stoichiometric acetate. The estimated fraction of electrons distributed to methanogenesis increased substantially when excessive acetate was added. Quantitative PCR analysis indicated that 10× acetate did not enhance Dehalococcoides biomass but rather increased the methanogen abundance by nearly one order of magnitude compared to that with stoichiometric acetate. The data suggest that adding low levels of substrate may be equally if not more effective as high concentrations, without producing excessive methane. This has implications for field remediation efforts, in that adding excess electron donor may not benefit the reactions of interest, which in turn will increase treatment costs without direct benefit to the stakeholders.

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Acknowledgments

We thank Dr. Michael Miller of Camp, Dresser, and McKee (CDM) for providing contaminated sediment/water samples, and thank Dr. Frank Loeffler for providing DHC sp. strain FL2 culture. This work was supported by the National Science Foundation Grant # 1102889.

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  1. Na Wei

    Present address: Institute of Genomic Biology, Rm 3414, 1206 Gregory Dr., Urbana, IL, 61801, USA

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  1. Environmental Engineering and Earth Sciences, Clemson University, 312 Biosystems Research Complex, 105 Collings Street, Clemson, SC, 29634, USA

    Kevin T. Finneran

  2. Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Urbana, IL, 61801, USA

    Na Wei

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Correspondence to Kevin T. Finneran.

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Wei, N., Finneran, K.T. Low and high acetate amendments are equally as effective at promoting complete dechlorination of trichloroethylene (TCE). Biodegradation 24, 413–425 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10532-012-9598-x

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