Biological fate of a polydisperse acrylate polymer in anaerobic sand-medium transport.
Soluble polyacrylate (PA), a polydisperse mixture of polyacrylate polymers, is strongly adsorbed and biodegradable. Biotic fate studies were carried out with once-through columns containing sand colonized with anaerobic biomass previously grown in a methanogenic fluidized bed. A fraction of soluble PA having a weight-average molecular weight of 16,700 and a range of molecular weight from 10(3) to 10(5) was biologically removed and mineralized to CO2. Due to its polydisperse nature, the breakthrough curve had a gradual increase to an apparent steady-state removal of approximately 60% near one day when the liquid detention time was 21 minutes. Modeling successfully explained the observed breakthrough result when the fraction was divided into components having a wide range of retardation factors (R): about 25% was strongly adsorbed (R = 200 and 500), 45% was moderately adsorbed (R = 50 and 100), and 30% was weakly adsorbed (R = 1-10). In this study, in which active biomass already was present from utilization of a primary substrate (glucose here), equilibrium adsorption increased the time to breakthrough, which also reduced the exiting concentration by increasing the substrate contact time.
Environmental Engineering and Science, University of Illinois, Urbana, Champaign, IL.
B E
BE
Rittmann
B
B
Henry
J E
JE
Odencrantz
J A
JA
Sutfin
D000180:Acrylic Resins / Q000378:metabolism*; D000693:Anaerobiosis; D001673:Biodegradation, Environmental; D001709:Biotechnology; D019605:Euryarchaeota / Q000378:metabolism; D008954:Models, Biological; D012822:Silicon Dioxide
D000180:Acrylic Resins; C006903:carbopol 940; D012822:Silicon Dioxide