BIOREMEDIATION OF CHLOROETHENES-CONTAMINATED GROUNDWATER USING GLUCONATE

Abstract

 In order to assess the effectiveness of gluconate as a hydrogen donor for biological reductive dechlorination of chloroethenes, an in situ bioremediation study with injection of a remediation agent that is mainly composed of gluconate was conducted in a chloroethenes-contaminated site where groundwater was contaminated with trichloroethene, cis-1, 2-dichloroethene and vinyl chloride. As a result of twice injections of the remediation agent, all of the chloroethenes were reduced below the groundwater standards within 620 days, which demonstrated the usefulness of gluconate as the hydrogen donor in in situ bioremediation of chloroethenes-contaminated groundwater. In addition, it was suggested that effects of gluconate injection on the groundwater quality are temporary and can be recovered to the original level. Comparison with other hydrogen donors previously applied for biological chloroethenes dichlorination demonstrated that gluconate may have advantages to other hydrogen donors in terms of the cost, dechlorination speed and duration of the effect as the hydrogen donor.