A microcosm study in the reductive dechlorination of tetrachloroethylene using fermentation acids and alcohols as electron donors

Anaerobic microcosms of Arthur Kill (New Jersey) sediment were used to investigate the effects of several electron donors on tetrachloroethylene (PCE) dechlorination activity. The substates tested were methanol, butanol, butyrate, lactate and succinate both by themselves and in various combinations. Different levels of PCE dehalogenation were noticed in all of the microcosms regardless of the electron donor used. Vinyl chloride was the major dehalogenation product detected in the majority of the microcosms. The causitive organism or group that carried our the reductive dehalogenation was not identified. Only the microcosms admended with a mixture of butanol/methanol were able to fully reduce the PCE to ethene and ethane. No correlations could be drawn between the added electron donors and their metabolic products with the reductive dechlorination process