Adaptation of a Dechlorinating Culture, KB-1, to Acidic Environments

KB-1 is an anaerobic Dehalococcoides-containing microbial culture used industrially to bioremediate sites impacted with chlorinated solvents. The culture is typically grown at pH 7. However, lower pH is often encountered and therefore the effect of pH was investigated. Both sudden and stepwise decre...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Author: Li, Yi Xuan
Other Authors: Edwards, Elizabeth A.
Language:en_ca
Published: 2012
Subjects:
pH
Online Access:http://hdl.handle.net/1807/33289
Description
Summary:KB-1 is an anaerobic Dehalococcoides-containing microbial culture used industrially to bioremediate sites impacted with chlorinated solvents. The culture is typically grown at pH 7. However, lower pH is often encountered and therefore the effect of pH was investigated. Both sudden and stepwise decreases in pH from 7 to 6 and 5.5 were investigated over a period of 450 days. An electron balance was also calculated to look at the flow of electrons for dechlorination. More than 95% of the reducing equivalents went towards methanogenesis and acetogenesis. Select microorganisms were compared by quantitative Polymerase Chain Reaction. It was found that lower rates of dechlorination correspond to low Dehalococcoides numbers and that different methanogens were enriched on different electron donors.