Development of Trickling Bioreactor(TBR) for Trichloroethylene biodegradation by Pseudomonas cepacia G4

Lab-scale trickling bioreactor(TBR) containing the biofilm of Pseudomonas cepacia G4 was developed for the treatment of trichloroethylene(TCE) in a waste gas stream. The effect of phenol feeding on the efficiency of TCE biodegadation in TBR was investigated with the change of inlet phenol concentration from 0 to 4.71 ppm. When 0.94 ppm of phenol was supplied, the best performance of TBR was maintained with the TCE removal efficiency of 58.1%. These results showed that the appropriate supply of phenol could stimulate TCE removal efficiency in TBR.

TBR에 공급되는 성장기질인 phenol의 농도에 따른 TCE 분해 효율 변화를 살펴보았다. Phenol 공급이 없는 경우에서의 TCE 제거효율은 평균 42.8%로 유지된 반면, phenol을 0.94 ppm 농도로 공급해줌으로써 TCE 분해 효율을 16% 정도 증가시킬 수 있었다. 따라서 TBR에 알맞은 양의 성장기질을 공급하면, TCE 분해 과정에서 불활성화되는 효소 및 세포의 재활성화를 통해 TCE 분해 효율이 증가시킬 수 있었다.