Modeling of Tetrachloroethylene Degradation by Anaerobic Granular Biological Activated Carbon

Abstract

A number of different methods have been used for modeling the adsorption and biotransformation of volatile organic chlorinated compounds such as tetrachloroethylene perchloroethylene (PCE). In this study, PCE was degraded by granular biological activated carbon (GBAC) in an anaerobic Erlenmeyer flask reactor. In order to study GBAC, we performed experiments in which the efficiencies of GBAC, granular activated carbon (GAC) and anaerobic sludge for the removal of PCE were compared. In this paper, we describe how PCE was microbially biotransformed and adsorbed on GBAC. The biotransformational products were trichloroethylene (TCE) and cis-1, 2-dichloroethylene (cis-1, 2-DCE), which were adsorbed by GBAC (at solid phase). Thus, the GBAC acted not only as a microbiological carrier, but was also instrumental in adsorbing PCE and the biotransformation products. Since the adsorbed PCE was biotransformed on the GBAC, we concluded that GBAC might be effective in the treatment of PCE in synthetic wastewater. The model confirmed that the GBAC was involved in the degradation of PCE under our conditions. The model confirmed that the GBAC was instrumental in treating PCE.