Anaerobic dechlorination of tetrachloromethane and 1,2-dichloroethane to degradable products by pure cultures of Desulfobacterium sp. and Methanobacterium sp.

Abstract

Methanobacterium thermoautotrophicum grew autotrophically and Desulfobacterium autotrophicum grew heterotrophically in the presence of one of several highly chlorinated aliphatic hydrocarbons in the low μM range. M. thermoautotrophicum transformed a portion of 1,2-dichloroethane, and ethene was identified as the product. D. autotrophicum also displayed substrate specificity; it reduced tetrachloromethane quantitatively to trichloromethane and dichloromethane, and converted 1,1,1-trichloroethane to 1,1-dichloroethane.