A laboratory study of the bioremediation of 2,4,6‐trinitrotoluene‐contaminated soil using aerobic/anoxic soil slurry reactor

Abstract

The successful operation of an aerobic/anoxic laboratory-scale soil slurry reactor showed that soil contaminated with 2,4,6-trinitrotoluene (TNT) and hexahydro-I ,3,5-trinitro-1 ,3,5-triazine (RDX) could be treated in batches or semicontinuously. Batch treatment resulted in the transformation of TNT. Semicontinuous treatment resulted in complete degradation of TNT. In addition to removing TNT, the slurry reactor also removed contaminants such as trinitrobenzene, 2,4-dinitrotoluene, RDX, and octahydro-l ,3,5,7-tetranitro-1 ,3,5,7-tetraazocine (HMX). Radiolabeled TNT incubated with reactor biomass showed that 23% of [14C]TNTwas mineralized, 27% was converted to biomass, and 8% was adsorbed onto the soil. The rest of the ['4C]TNT was accounted for as metabolites, including a ring cleavage product identified as 2,3-butanediol. Increasing the frequency of soil addition from once to two or three times weekly did not affect the TNT removal rates. The soil slurry reactor also maintained the bacterial population fairly well, needing only 0.3% molasses as a cosubstrate. Water Environ. Res., 70, 80 (1998).

Soils contaminated with explosives: Environmental fate and evaluation of state-of-the-art remediation processes (IUPAC Technical Report)

“…Bioremediation would be a safe and cost-effective method for treating TNT contamination. Biological removal of explosives from soil has been demonstrated using aerobic/anoxic soil slurry rectors [295][296][297][298]. A well-defined sulfate-reducing consortium, consisting of Desulfovibrio spp., namely, D.…”

Toxicity assessment and biodegradation potential of water-soluble sludge containing 2,4,6-trinitrotoluene

“…In this experiment, SLP was amended with mineral salt composition M8*, CLE and molasses. These amendments were previously shown to be efficient for TNT biodegradation (Boopathy et al, 1998, Gerth et al, 2003Limane et al, 2009). Addition of molasses provided approximately 0.5% reducing sugars (mostly sucrose).…”

A Sustainable NATO/EU Partnership for the Future

“…Treatment alternatives for energetic compounds in soils are fairly well-established, and they include soil washing, composting/landfarming, and anoxic biodegradation (Pennington et al, 1995;Boopathy and Manning, 1998;Widrig et al, 1997;Fuller et al, 2003). Additionally, a number of recently completed or ongoing efforts are focused on the further development of phytoremediation, surface soil amendments, and OB practices to remediate surface soil contamination (see Section 5.1.2).…”