Dechlorination of High Concentrations of Tetrachloroethylene Using a Fixed-bed Reactor

We evaluated the properties of a fixed-bed column reactor for high-concentration tetrachloroethylene (PCE) removal. The anaerobic bacterium Clostridium bifermentans DPH-1 was able to dechlorinate PCE to cis-1,2-dichloroethylene (cDCE) via trichloroethylene (TCE) at high rates in the monoculture biofilm of an upflow fixed-bed column reactor. The first-order reaction rate of C. bifermentans DPH-1 was relatively high at $0.006\;mg\;protein^{-1}{\cdot}l{\cdot}h^{-1}$, and comparable to rates obtained by others. When we gradually raised the influent PCE concentration from $30\;{\mu}M$ to $905\;{\mu}M$, the degree of PCE dechlorination rose to over 99% during the operation period of 2,000 h. In order to maintain efficiency of transformation of PCE in this reactor system, more than 6 h hydraulic retention time (HRT) is required. The maximum volumetric dechlorination rate of PCE was determined to be $1,100\;{\mu}mol{\cdot}d^{-1}l$ of reactor $volume^{-1}$, which is relatively high compared to rates reported previously. The results of this study indicate that the PCE removal performance of this fixed-bed reactor immobilized mono-culture is comparable to that of a fixed-bed reactor mixture culture system. Furthermore, our system has the major advantage of a rapid (5 days) start-up time for the reactor. The flow characteristics of this reactor are intermediate between those of the plug-flow and complete-mix systems. Biotransformation of PCE into innocuous compounds is desirable; however, unfortunately cDCE, which is itself toxic, was the main product of PCE dechlorination in this reactor system. In order to establish a system for complete detoxification of PCE, co-immobilization of C. bifermentans DPH-1 with other bacteria that degrade cDCE aerobically or anaerobically to ethene or ethane may be effective.