Microorganisms that decompose halogenated hydrocarbons and their

Chemistry: molecular biology and microbiology – Process of utilizing an enzyme or micro-organism to destroy... – Destruction of hazardous or toxic waste

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4352521, 4352533, 435874, B09B 300

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active

059981989

DESCRIPTION:

BRIEF SUMMARY
TECHNICAL FIELD

The present invention relates to a biocleaning process for water or soil contaminated by halogenated hydrocarbon.


BACKGROUND ART

Recently, organic solvents, and particularly halogenated hydrocarbons, have been used in large amounts as cleaners and so forth in advanced industries. Since growing attention is being focused on contamination of groundwater and soil caused by these substances or waste water containing these substances, there is a desire to implement countermeasures against this contamination immediately.
Examples of known physical methods that have been employed in the past as countermeasures include an air stripping method in which the contaminated soil is excavated and air is blown through the soil to volatilize the halogenated hydrocarbons and adsorb it with activated charcoal and so forth, and a vacuum extraction method in which the contaminated soil is pounded into a pipe after which a vacuum is drawn to aerate the soil and remove the contaminants. These methods are considered to be able to be applied to decontamination of groundwater as well.
However, these methods have the disadvantage of requiring a large amount of energy, such as for blowing in air. In addition, the former has the disadvantage of requiring that the soil be excavated, while the latter has the disadvantage of extraction efficiency decreasing as the concentration of contaminant decreases, thus making the cleaning difficult. Moreover, from the viewpoint of preventing secondary contamination such as air pollution, these methods require that separate contaminants be detoxified in order to adsorb onto activated charcoal and so forth.
On the other hand, research has been conducted in recent years on so-called biocleaning methods in which contaminants are efficiently decomposed and detoxified by microorganisms. Since these methods utilize the decomposition mechanism of microorganisms, they do not require a large amount of energy as compared with the above-mentioned physical methods. They are also able to completely decompose and detoxify contaminants without causing secondary contamination. Moreover, the cleaning can be performed even at low concentrations of contaminants, thus enabling decontamination to be performed over a wide area at the original location and creating significant expectations of low costs.
Examples of methods used to purify contaminated soil by microorganisms include a solid phase treatment in which microorganisms are mixed into excavated soil with nutrient sources such as phosphorous and nitrogen to promote decomposition of contaminants, a slurry treatment in which microorganisms are mixed into excavated soil with water and nutrient sources to treat the soil in the liquid state and promote decomposition of contaminants, and an original location treatment in which air, nutrient sources and so forth are injected into contaminated soil without excavating to promote decomposition of contaminants by microorganisms present in the soil.
Among the above-mentioned biotreatment techniques, since soil excavation is required and the application range is limited in the case of the solid phase treatment and slurry treatment method, treatment and equipment costs are relatively high.
On the other hand, the original location treatment method involves relatively low costs and allows treatment over wide area. However, the cleaning rate is slow since the the absolute number of soil microorganisms is low. In the case of compounds that are difficult to decompose such as halogenated hydrocarbons in particular, there is a possibility that microorganisms being able to decompose contaminants in the soil may not be present in the soil, thus making cleaning impossible. In this case, acquiring microorganisms that are able to decompose halogenated hydrocarbons and inoculating them into the soil enables the cleaning rate to be improved and soil to be purified even though microorganisms being able to decompose the contaminants are not present in the soil.
A halogenated hydrocarbon contaminant, trichloroethylene (TCE),

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