Ethylene | EPFL Graph Search

Ethylene (IUPAC name: ethene) is a hydrocarbon which has the formula or . It is a colourless, flammable gas with a faint "sweet and musky" odour when pure. It is the simplest alkene (a hydrocarbon with carbon–carbon double bonds). Ethylene is widely used in the chemical industry, and its worldwide production (over 150 million tonnes in 2016) exceeds that of any other organic compound. Much of this production goes toward polyethylene, a widely used plastic containing polymer chains of ethylene units in various chain lengths. Ethylene is also an important natural plant hormone and is used in agriculture to force the ripening of fruits. The hydrate of ethylene is ethanol. Structure and properties This hydrocarbon has four hydrogen atoms bound to a pair of carbon atoms that are connected by a double bond. All six atoms that comprise ethylene are coplanar. The H-C-H angle is 117.4°, close to the 120° for ideal sp² hybridized carbon. The molecule is al

On-site biostimulation evaluation of a remediated perchloroethene-contaminated acquifer located in Jablunkov, Czech Republic

Isabelle Fäh

Chlorinated ethenes solvents (CEs) are one of the most common contaminants identified in groundwater ecosystems. Long used as a degreaser in industry, perchloroethene (PCE) and trichloroethene (TCE) are particularly persistent in the environment as recalcitrant to oxic degradation, and classified as unhealthy and dangerous for the environment. Under anaerobic conditions, CEs can be degraded naturally in the environment by organohalide respiring bacteria (OHRB) through dehalogenase enzymes reducing them into ethene, a non-hazardous end product. However, toxicity of the intermediate daughter compounds of the degradation (TCE, DCE and VC) is higher than PCE. As this natural attenuation is a slow process, intermediate compounds accumulate in the environment and biostimulation is often used to enhance the complete degradation of CEs. Substrates are added to the contaminated aquifer and used by fermentative bacteria releasing by-product such as H2 that is essential for the dehalorespiration of CEs. Biostimulation has been studied in a PCE contaminated-aquifer located in Jablunkov (Czech Republic). Cheese whey (CW) has been injected into the groundwater in November 2012 and June 2013. The objective of the current project is to evaluate the efficiency of the CW applications by analysing microbiologic and physico-chemical parameters describing the aquifer at six sampling dates from September 2012 to December 2013 within six wells allocated over the aquifer. Global bacterial community structures were analysed in laboratory using Polymerase Chain Reaction (PCR) and T-RFLP (Terminal Restriction Fragment Length Polymorphism). OHRB were analysed as well by specific PCR targeting 16S rRNA and dehalogenase genes of bacteria known to degrade completely the CEs. Then, contaminants and ethene concentrations as well as others Terminal Electron Acceptors implicated in the respiratory processes (Terminal Electron Accepting Processes – TEAPs) were measured to give information about the redox conditions within the aquifer. Finally, others hydrogeological parameters such as pH and temperature were measured. All data were analysed using Multiple Factor Analysis (MFA) in the R software. Interpretations provided a global model indicating the characteristics and functioning of the aquifer. The successive CW applied on-site have a gradual impact on the environmental conditions and on the structures of bacterial communities. After the two CW applications, the aquifer has partly changed to conditions favourable for complete dechlorination. It was the case for three wells over six. Two CW injections have been necessary to allow the production of ethene for two wells whereas only one was needed for the other one. Biostimulation were efficient but not sufficient to completely degrade the CEs on the whole aquifer. In one well, the accumulation of DCE were more important than the production of ethene. In two other wells, ethene was not produced but the statistical analysis showed that they tend toward complete dechlorination conditions. New CW applications would be necessary to completely remediate this aquifer.

2014

Anaerobic degradation of vinyl chloride in aquifer microcosms

Christof Holliger

The anaerobic degradation potential at a chloroethene-contaminated site was investigated by operating two anoxic column aquifer microcosms enriched in iron(III). One column was fed with vinyl chloride (VC) only (column A) and one with acetate in addition (column B). In column A, after about 600 pore volume exchanges (PVEs) VC started to disappear and reached almost zero VC recovery in the effluent after 1000 PVEs. No formation of ethene was observed. In column B, effluent VC was almost always only a fraction of influent VC. Formation of ethene was observed after 800 PVEs and started to become an important degradation product after 1550 PVEs. However, ethene was never observed in stoichiometric amounts compared with disappeared VC. The average stable isotope enrichment factor for VC disappearance in column A was determined to be -4.3‰. In column B the isotope enrichment factor shifted from -10.7 to -18.5‰ concurrent with an increase in ethene production. Batch microcosms inoculated with column material showed similar isotope enrichment factors as the column microcosms. These results indicated that two degradation processes occurred, one in column A and two in parallel in column B with increasing importance of reductive dechlorination with time. This study suggests that in addition to reductive dechlorination other degradation processes such as anaerobic oxidation should be taken into account when evaluating natural attenuation of VC and that isotope analysis can help to differentiate between different pathways of VC removal.

American Society of Agronomy2011

Influence of pH on dehalorespiring consortia & first steps in the development of a methodology for acid neutralization in enhanced in situ bioremediation

Nicole Munz

Enhanced in situ bioremediation of chlorinated solvents is, especially in source zone remediation, often limited through the accompanied high acidification of groundwater. This acid built-up originating from the dechlorination itself and fermentation products, such as organic acids, presents a draw-back in the efficiency of dehalorespiring bacteria. It is therefore indispensable to develop and implement appropriate buffering strategies to ensure a constant transformation of toxic chloroethenes to the final non-toxic product ethene. In this study pH tolerance of different dehalorespiring bacteria was tested. The limiting acidic pH varies significantly among the consortia. The consortium SL23b4 (PCE to ethene) grows at all the examined pH (pH 5 to pH 7.5) with a pH optimum between 6 and 7 (depending on the dechlorination step), whereas Maroc 6b (PCE to ethene) was only found to grow at incubation pH of 7, and very slowly at pH 6.5. The consortium 2SO (cis-DCE to ethene) seems to be inhibited at acidic pH (no growth at pH 5 and 5.5) having a pH optimum above neutral pH. In most cases incomplete dechlorination was observed in cultures growing at acidic pH or below the pH optima, accumulating toxic intermediate dechlorination products as a consequence. Additionally, high rates of dechlorination were always accompanied by pH drops up to 1.2 pH units, giving evidence of high acid production. pH had also influence on the community composition. In the consortium SL23b4 a shift from a Dehalococcoides- (pH 6-7.5) to a Sulfurospirillum spp.- (pH5 -5.5) dominated community was observed. Consortium Maroc 6b showed significantly different community compositions due to a pH change of only 0.5 pH units. Dehalococcoides spp. and Dehalobacter spp. were dominating at pH 7 and pH 6.5, respectively. Consortium 2SO is dominated by Dehalococcoides spp. at all pH, although at pH 7 a much higher diversity seems to prevail, with the threefold number of OTUs. Tests on the tolerance of the dehalorespiring consortia for elevated PCE concentration showed similar patterns for the different dechlorination steps, as for pH cultures, and confirmed a generally higher sensitivity towards PCE and pH changes for the last steps of dechlorination. Conclusively, Dehalococcoides spp., the only known genera able to perform complete dechlorination, seem to be highly sensitive to pH and PCE changes. Further, abiotic experiments on silicate mineral dissolution, using forsteritic olivine, were performed to simulate the buffer capacity of the minerals for the acid production during microbial reductive dechlorination. In these experiments, the buffer capacity was insufficient to counterbalance the constant acid titration rate, resulting in a final pH between 3 and 4 (initial pH of 7). The formation of precipitates, such as iron oxide, and the re-precipitation of magnesium were observed in some cases, showing a decrease in magnesium concentrations.

2010