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NATURAL BIOLOGICAL ATTENUATION OF AROMATIC HYDROCARBONS UNDER ANAEROBIC CONDITIONS
Citation:
Barker, J. F. AND J T. Wilson*. NATURAL BIOLOGICAL ATTENUATION OF AROMATIC HYDROCARBONS UNDER ANAEROBIC CONDITIONS. Subsurface Restoration. Ann Arbor Press, Ann Arbor, MI, , 289-300, (1997).
Description:
There is little consistent difference in the calculated half-lives of aromatic hydrocarbons in different anaerobic environments, but methanogenic environments might be generally the least supportive of rapid biotransformation. Toluene was usually the most rapidly biotransformed, while benzene, cumene, trimethylbenzenes, and chlorobenzene were usually the slowest to biotransform in most experiments. Xylene isomers showed no consistent biotransformation rate sequence.
Given the common occurrence of anaerobic, aromatic, aromatic biotransformation in ground water , why do plumes of BTEX persist for long distance and time? In part, it could be the continuing supply of BTEX from dissolution of the petroleum source. BTEX supplied at mg/L concentrations may undergo a 1000-fold attenuation and still be mapped within a plume. On the other hand, at some sites there is a rapid anaerobic biotransformation of BTEX which appears to produce a very restricted dissolved plume of BTEX. Here, rapid biotransformation appears to offer some protection to the ground water resource.