Chloroform biodegradation via aerobic cometabolism in slurry microcosms and in a continuous-flow column

CF aerobic cometabolic biodegradation by the indigenous biomass of a sandy aquifer was studied in slurry microcosms and in a 2-m continuous-flow reactor simulating a portion of saturated aquifer. Butane was utilized as the growth substrate. The slurry microcosms tests allowed to estimate the lag-times for the onset of butane utilization and CF degradation under different experimental conditions. The CF lag-time proved to be strongly influenced by temperature and by the condition of biomass growth on butane. A 2-month operation period of the flow reactor resulted in the onset of CF cometabolism after about 1 month, and in an average CF removal equal to 50%. As a result of the successful implementation of a pulsed injection of butane and oxygen, biomass growth resulted quite uniform throughout the column, and no sign of pore clogging due to biomass growth was detected.