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Updated: Aug 14, 2026

Methods for Facilitating Microbial Growth on Pulp Mill Waste Streams and Characterization of the Biodegradation Potential of Cultured Microbes
Published on: December 12, 2013
Biodegradation of glycidol and glycidyl nitrate
D L Kaplan1, J H Cornell, A M Kaplan
1Environmental Protection Group, U.S. Army Natick Research and Development Laboratories, Natick, Massachusetts 01760.
Abstract:
When calcium hydroxide is used to desensitize glycerol trinitrate (nitroglycerine)-containing waste streams, the epoxides glycidol and glycidyl nitrate are formed. The epoxide rings of both compounds are unstable to heat in aqueous solutions, and they open to form glycerol 1-mononitrate and presumably glycerol. These transformations were accelerated by microbial activity. Glycerol 1-mononitrate was slowly denitrated to form glycerol. Glycidol and glycidyl nitrate caused base-pair substitutions in the Ames test for mutagenicity, whereas glycerol 1-mononitrate tests were negative.
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