An investigation of bioremediation of carbon tetrachloride and toluene and the use of a surfactant to enhance this process

This study investigated the potential for using microorganisms to degrade carbon tetrachloride and toluene in an aqueous environment. An extensive literature search yielded numerous reports of similar studies in which the investigators met with limited success using various test parameters. These previous results, such as specific nutrient media and oxygen content, were incorporated into this study to further enhance the potential for identifying microorganisms capable of biodegrading carbon tetrachloride and toluene. Results indicate that four out of seven of the bacterial consortia tested were capable of carbon tetrachloride and toluene degradation. In addition, a non-ionic surfactant, Tween-80, was tested to determined if biodegradation would be enhanced by increasing the contaminant solubility and bioavailability. These results show that Tween- 80 did increase contaminant partitioning into the aqueous phase, thus potentially increasing the contaminant bioavailability. However, at the concentration tested, there was no measured increase in biodegradation due to the application of Tween-80.