Development of an on-site packed bed reactor process for the bioremediation of an aquifer polluted by chlorinated solvents

The general purpose of this study was to develop an aerobic cometabolic process in a packed bed reactor to treat groundwater contaminated by trichloroethylene (TCE) and 1,1,2,2-tetrachloroethane (TeCA). The specific goals were to select the best performing microbial consortium for the cometabolic process and the best support for biofilm formation. Groundwater samples taken from 5 wells of the contaminated site were fed with 5 candidate growth substrates. Butane was selected as the best substrate. The first-rate constants obtained with butane were 130 L / g protein / d for TCE and 2.6 L / g protein / d for TeCA. As a result of a study conducted both in batch and continuous bioreactors, Biomax® resulted the best carrier among 4 candidate porous carriers.