SBIR Phase I: In Situ Remediation of Methyl Tert-Butyl Ether (MTBE) Using Bioaugmentation

汽油添加剂甲基叔丁基醚(MTBE)是美国地下水中第二大最普遍的污染物，目前还没有经济的技术将其从供水中去除。环境激素科学家最近分离出一种利用MTBE作为生长底物的新型细菌(ENV735)。这只是关于能够在MTBE上生长的纯文化的第二份报告。这一阶段提案的目的是评估菌株ENV 735在MTBE原位生物修复中的潜在应用。将利用含水层微宇宙来测量不同微生物和地球化学条件下ENV 735降解MTBE的动力学。此外，还将研究ENV 735降解MTBE的途径，并将进行实验，以确定与ENV 735相同类别的其他细菌是否共享降解MTBE的代谢能力。这项研究的数据将被用来评估使用ENV 735和类似的微生物原位修复受污染的水中的MTBE的可行性。修复技术允许快速、高效和经济有效地破坏地下水中的MTBE的商业潜力是巨大的。这种可能性源于以下因素：(1)MTBE是美国第二大最普遍的地下水污染物(例如，最近丹佛市79%的水井被发现受到污染)；(2)传统技术无法有效地从地下水中去除这种污染物，以及(3)MTBE已被证明会导致实验动物癌症，因此监管部门高度关注。基于这些因素，环境分析人士预计，MTBE将成为未来十年最活跃的补救市场之一。

The gasoline additive methyl tert-butyl ether (MTBE) is the second most prevalent contaminant in groundwater in the United States, and there are currently no economical technologies for its removal from the water supply. Envirogen scientists have recently isolated a novel bacterium (ENV 735) that utilizes MTBE as a growth substrate. This is only the second report of a pure culture that is capable of growing on MTBE. The objective of this Phase I Proposal is to evaluate the potential application of strain ENV 735 for in situ bioremediation of MTBE. Aquifer microcosms will be used to measure the kinetics of MTBE degradation by ENV 735 under different microbiological and geochemical conditions. In addition, the pathway of MTBE degradation by ENV 735 will be studied, and experiments will be conducted to determine whether the metabolic capacity to degrade MTBE is shared among other bacteria of the same class as ENV 735. The data from this study will be used to assess the feasibility of using ENV 735 and similar microorganisms for in situ remediation of MTBE in contaminated aquifers.The commercial potential for a remediation technology that allows rapid, efficient, and cost effective destruction of MTBE in groundwater is tremendous. This potential derives from the following factors: (1) MTBE is the second most prevalent groundwater contaminant in the United States (e.g., 79 % of wells in urban Denver were recently found to be contaminated); (2) traditional technologies are ineffective at removing this contaminant from groundwater, and (3) MTBE has been shown to cause cancer in laboratory animals, thus regulatory concern is high. Based on these factors, ENVIROGEN analysts expect MTBE to be one of the most active remediation markets over the next decade.