Relationship between growth rate of phenol utilizing bacteria and the toxic effect of metabolic intermediates of trichloroethylene (TCE)

The objective of this study is to clarify the effects of growth rate of phenol utilizing bacteria, on the toxicity of metabolic intermediates of TCE. The specific degradation rates of TCE in the reactor fed with TCE were around 20 to 50% of the reference reactors without TCE when the apparent growth rate was zero, whereas the degradation rates were almost the same when cells were kept in an exponential growth phase. Contrary to the previous studies, the cumulative amount of TCE degradation during one generation was not responsible for the toxic effects by metabolic intermediates of TCE. The toxic effects were dependent on the specific growth rate.