Effect of different nutrients on the anaerobic degradation of trichloroethene at optimal temperature

Temperature as an important environmental factor in the in-situ bioremediation of contaminated sites, we examined the effect of temperature on trichloroethene (TCE) anaerobic degradation by a Dehalococcoides-containing consortium (UC-1). In addition, this paper was also intended to determine whether varying the growth medium would provide useful information about the degradation of TCE by UC-1 at the optimal temperature. The results indicated that (i) TCE degradation rate increased with increasing temperature to 35 °C; (ii) at 4 °C, a part of TCE was degraded to cis-dichloroethene (cis-DCE), and at 20 °C, the products of TCE degradation were cis-DCE, vinyl chloride (VC) and ethene, and TCE was completely degraded to VC and ethene at 35 °C. Presumably, temperature influences the primary metabolism of Dehalococcoides spp. which results in different TCE degradation rate and different products distribution of TCE degradation at the end of the experiment; (iii) different media compositions had a great influence on the degradation activity of UC-1.