Preliminary development of a bench-scale treatment system for aerobic degradation of trichloroethylene

Our results have demonstrated that TCE may be biodegraded to nontoxic products under certain conditions. Trichloroethylene is apparently degraded by strain G4 to CO2, cellular carbon, and inorganic chloride. This activity requires aerobic conditions and exposure of the organism to certain aromatic compounds. This exposure is required to induce the bio-synthesis of one or more enzymes that fortuitously degrade TCE. The normal function of the enzyme(s) is the metabolism of the aromatic compounds. Evidence from the work with environmental samples indicates that the natural microflora in a variety of areas is capable of TCE degradation if stimulated by the appropriate aromatic compounds. These results are presently being applied to the development of bench-scale continuous treatment systems for further assessment of biodegradation as a means for detoxification of TCE-contaminated sites.