A135 Research Engineering Complex, Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Michigan State University, East Lansing, MI 48824, USA.
Biodegradation. 2013 Sep;24(5):657-63. doi: 10.1007/s10532-012-9613-2. Epub 2012 Dec 9.
Isobutanol is an alternate fuel additive that is being considered because of economic and lower emission benefits. However, future gasoline spills could result in co-contamination of isobutanol with gasoline components such as benzene, toluene, ethyl-benzene and xylene. Hence, isobutanol could affect the degradability of gasoline components thereby having an effect on contaminant plume length and half-life. In this study, the effect of isobutanol on the biodegradation of a model gasoline component (toluene) was examined in laboratory microcosms. For this, toluene and isobutanol were added to six different toluene degrading laboratory microcosms under sulfate amended, nitrate amended or methanogenic conditions. While toluene biodegradation was not greatly affected in the presence of isobutanol in five out of the six different experimental sets, toluene degradation was completely inhibited in one set of microcosms. This inhibition occurred in sulfate amended microcosms constructed with inocula from wastewater treatment plant activated sludge. Our data suggest that toluene degrading consortia are affected differently by isobutanol addition. These results indicate that, if co-contamination occurs, in some cases the in situ half-life of toluene could be significantly extended.
异丁醇是一种替代燃料添加剂，由于其具有经济和降低排放的优势，因此正在被考虑使用。然而，未来的汽油泄漏可能会导致异丁醇与汽油成分（如苯、甲苯、乙苯和二甲苯）的共同污染。因此，异丁醇可能会影响汽油成分的可生物降解性，从而对污染物羽流长度和半衰期产生影响。在这项研究中，在实验室微环境中研究了异丁醇对模型汽油成分（甲苯）生物降解的影响。为此，在硫酸盐修正、硝酸盐修正或产甲烷条件下，将甲苯和异丁醇添加到六个不同的甲苯降解实验室微环境中。虽然在六个不同实验设置中的五个中，异丁醇的存在对甲苯的生物降解没有很大影响，但在一组微环境中，甲苯的降解完全受到抑制。这种抑制发生在硫酸盐修正的微环境中，这些微环境的接种物来自废水处理厂的活性污泥。我们的数据表明，甲苯降解菌群受到异丁醇添加的影响不同。这些结果表明，如果发生共同污染，在某些情况下，甲苯的原位半衰期可能会显著延长。
