Final published version
Research output: Contribution to Journal/Magazine › Journal article › peer-review
<mark>Journal publication date</mark> | 30/11/2006 |
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<mark>Journal</mark> | Journal of Environmental Quality |
Issue number | 6 |
Volume | 35 |
Number of pages | 5 |
Pages (from-to) | 2021-2025 |
Publication Status | Published |
<mark>Original language</mark> | English |
The fermentation process is an important component in the biodegradation of organic compounds in natural and contaminated systems. Comparing with terminal electron-accepting processes (TEAPs), however, research on fermentation processes has to some extent been ignored in the past decades, particularly on the persistence of fermentation process in the presence of toxic organic pollutants. Both field and laboratory studies, presented here, showed that microbial processes in a groundwater-based system exhibited a differential inhibitory response to toxicity of phenolic compounds from coal tar distillation, thus resulting in the accumulation of volatile fatty acids (VFAs) and hydrogen. This indicated that fermentation processes could be more resistant to phenol toxicity than the subsequent TEAPs such us methanogenesis and sulfate reduction, thus providing us with more options for enhancing bioremediation processes.