Diisopropanolamine Biodegradation Potential at Sour Gas Plants |
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| Authors: | Lisa M Gieg E Anne Greene Debora L Coy Phillip M Fedorak |
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| Institution: | Lisa M. Gieg;obtained her B.Sc. and Ph.D. degrees in microbiology at the University of Alberta. Her studies focused on the microbial metabolism of carbazole and creosote. She spent one year doing postdoctoral work on the biodegradation of diisopropanolamine at the University of Alberta. She is currently doing postdoctoral work in the Department of Botany and Microbiology at the University of Oklahoma (Norman, OK 73019), where she is studying intrinsic bioremediation on hydrocarbon-contaminated aquifers. E. Anne Greene;is a Ph.D. student in the Department of Biological Sciences at the University of Alberta (Edmonton, Alberta, T6G 2E9, Canada). She is studying sulfolane biodegradation at the three contaminated sites described in this paper, and elucidating the sulfolane degradative pathway using pure isolates from these sites. She has an M.Sc. in bacterial molecular genetics and a B.Sc. in microbiology, both from the University of British Columbia. Debora L. Coy;is a research technologist in the Department of Biological Sciences at the University of Alberta (Edmonton, Alberta, T6G 2E9, CCanada). For the past 10 years she has provided technical support for various laboratory projects, including the aerobic microbial metabolism of thiophenic compounds found in petroleum. Most recently she has been involved in the aerobic and anaerobic biodegradation of sulfolane and DIPA by microbial populations from sour gas treatment plants. Phillip M. Fedorak;is a professor of microbiology (Department of Biological Sciences, University of Alberta, Edmonton, Alberta, T6G 2E9 Canada. Phone 403-492-3670;Fax 403–492-9234). He has more than two decades of laboratory research experience studying the aerobic biodegradation of petroleum and heterocyclic compounds therein, including carbazole and many condensed thiophenes, and the anaerobic biodegradation of phenols. He teaches undergraduate and graduate courses in environmental microbiology. |
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| Abstract: | The potential for aerobic and anaerobic biodegradation of a sour gas treatment chemical, diisopropanolamine (DIPA), was studied using contaminated aquifer materials from three sour gas treatment sites in western Canada. DIPA was found to be readily consumed under aerobic conditions at 8°C and 28°C in shake flask cultures incubated with aquifer material from each of the sites, and this removal was characterized by first-order kinetics. In addition, DIPA biodegradation was found to occur under nitrate-, Min(IV)., and Fe(III)-reducing conditions at 28°C, and in some cases at 8°C, in laboratory microcosms, DIPA loss corresponded to consumption of nitrate, and production of Mn(II) and Fe(II) in viable microcosms compared to corresponding sterile controls. A threshold DIPA concentration near 40 mg/L was observed in the anaerobic microcosms. This report provides the first evidence that DIPA is biodegraded under anaerobic conditions, and our data suggest that biodegradation may contribute to DIPA attenuation under aerobic and anaerobic conditions in aquifers contaminated with this sour gas treatment chemical. |
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