Jian Wang, (jian2@uakron.edu)

and

Teresa J. Cutright, Assistant Professor (tcutright@uakron.edu)

Department of Civil Engineering,

The University of Akron,

Akron OH44325-3905

Trichloroethylene (TCE) and tetrachloroethylene (PCE) are most frequently detected organic contaminants found in water supplies from groundwater. For whole-cell degradation, a new consortium was developed by using five of the most common individual strains present in the environment. These strains included Pseudomonas putida, Pseudomonas fluorescens, Nitrosomonas europeae, Nocardia paraffinae and Mycobacterium sp.. A first order kinetic approach was used to describe the degradation rate, and the reaction rate constant k was obtained for each experiment. For TCE degradation without additions of any inducers at different initial concentrations, the k values were between 0.0044 to 0.0102 day^-1. Without inducers, the k values for PCE degradation were 0.0231, 0.0249, and 0.0269, respectively. Toluene/phenol was then added as the inducer. The k value of TCE degradation was dramatically increased with adding 0.2 μM toluene/phenol. At the initial concentration 205.2~210.3 μM, the k value with toluene (0.0301 day^-1) was 2.2 times higher than that without inducers (0.0094 day^-1), and 58.5% higher with phenol. However, the k values of PCE degradation were not changed much. TCE enzymatic degradation experiments were studied. The k values were 0.038, 0.0522, 0.0454, and 0.0607, respectively. To study waste minimization of industrial chlorinated waste solvents, high concentrations of PCE (114.5 and 141.7 μM) and TCE (150.1 and 302.48 μM) mixtures were used for degradation experiments. For enzymatic degradation, 99.10% and 76.08% PCE reductions, and 97.33% and 95.89% TCE reductions were achieved in five days.

jian2@uakron.edu (330)434-7009

Graduate Student

Department of Civil Engineering

University of Akron, Akron, OH44325-3905

tcutright@uakron.edu (330)972-4935

Assistant Professor

Department of Civil Engineering

University of Akron, Akron, OH44325-3905