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.
Rittmann
B E
BE
Environmental Engineering and Science, University of Illinois, Urbana, Champaign, IL.
Henry
B
B
Odencrantz
J E
JE
Sutfin
J A
JA
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