A study on cometabolic bioventing for the in situ remediation of trichloroethylene

Cometabolic bioventing for removal of TCE in the unsaturated zone was studied in a soil column study using methane as growth substrate. A numerical model was developed for simulating the behavior of TCE during cometabolic bioventing. The model parameters were estimated independently through laboratory batch experiments or from the literature. Simulations were found to provide reasonable agreement with the experimental data. The experimental data show that a total TCE remediation efficiency of over 95% was obtained. The volatilization-to-biodegradation ratio of TCE was about 7:1 and T _c values ranging from 0.0078 to 0.07 were obtained in this methane-driven system. Due to the toxicity of the high TCE concentrations to the microbial biomass in the initial stages of the experiment, cometabolic biodegradation was enhanced and was more efficient in the later stages of cometabolic bioventing.