The Biodegradation of TNT in Enhanced Soil and Compost Systems.

摘要

The ability of microorganisms to degrade TNT under a variety of conditions has been examined. A technique involving the degradation of TNT in soil which had been enhanced with additional nutrients was found to yield undesirable end products and to proceed at too slow a rate to be practical as a means of disposing of large quantities of TNT. A procedure using a composting technique was found to be acceptable in that resonably large quantities (up to 10% dry weight) of TNT could be degraded in a reasonable time and no detectable undesirable end products resulted. The composting process was examined in bench scale experiments using standard analytical procedures and also carbon-14 tracer methodology. (Author)