For many decades, tetrachloroethylene (PCE) has been used as a dry-cleaning solvent and as a degreaser. Owing to its improper storage and disposal, PCE has become one of the most widely detected pollutant in groundwaters. PCE has been classified as a potential threat to the environment and as a possible carcinogen to humans. It has been shown that PCE can be completely dechlorinated to non-toxic compounds under anaerobic conditions. / In this study, the PCE treatment efficiency of two anaerobic fluidized bed reactors (AFBRs) were investigated and compared under different hydraulic loads. Granular activated carbon (GAC) and biolite were used as a support media in the first and second reactor, respectively. / The results showed that the GAC AFBR achieved close to 100% PCE removal under all the loading conditions studied. Both adsorption and dechlorination accounted for this total PCE dechlorination. With the exception of one hydraulic loading, adsorption was the main PCE removal mechanism for the duration of this investigation for the GAC reactor. The maximum PCE removal efficiency achieved by the biolite$ rm sp{TM}$ AFBR was approximately 70%. Dechlorination was the only removal mechanism for this reactor. / The highest specific chloride ion production rate for both reactors was achieved under the lowest loading condition and methanol activity. Very few metabolites were detected in the reactors' effluents showing that the chloride ion production was almost entirely due to the total dechlorination of PCE.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:LACETR/oai:collectionscanada.gc.ca:QMM.28002 |
| Date | January 1997 |
| Creators | Marcoux, Sébastien. |
| Contributors | Nicell, J. A. (advisor) |
| Publisher | McGill University |
| Source Sets | Library and Archives Canada ETDs Repository / Centre d'archives des thèses électroniques de Bibliothèque et Archives Canada |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Electronic Thesis or Dissertation |
| Format | application/pdf |
| Coverage | Master of Engineering (Department of Civil Engineering and Applied Mechanics.) |
| Rights | All items in eScholarship@McGill are protected by copyright with all rights reserved unless otherwise indicated. |
| Relation | alephsysno: 001617848, proquestno: MQ37269, Theses scanned by UMI/ProQuest. |
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