Open AccessReductive dechlorination of halogenated phenols by a sulfate‐reducing consortium
Author(s) -
Häggblom Max M.
Publication year - 1998
Publication title -
fems microbiology ecology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.377
H-Index - 155
eISSN - 1574-6941
pISSN - 0168-6496
DOI - 10.1111/j.1574-6941.1998.tb01559.x
Subject(s) - phenol , sulfate , phenols , molybdate , mineralization (soil science) , degradation (telecommunications) , environmental chemistry , chlorophenol , chemistry , organic chemistry , telecommunications , computer science , nitrogen
A sulfidogenic consortium enriched from an estuarine sediment utilized 4‐chlorophenol as a sole source of carbon and energy. Reductive dechlorination as the initial step in chlorophenol degradation by the sulfate‐reducing consortium was confirmed with the use of chloro‐fluorophenols. Both 4‐chloro‐2‐fluorophenol and 4‐chloro‐3‐fluorophenol were dechlorinated, resulting in stoichiometric accumulation of 2‐fluorophenol and 3‐fluorophenol, respectively. The fluorophenols were not degraded further. Furthermore, phenol was detected as a transient intermediate during degradation of 4‐chlorophenol in the presence of 3‐fluorophenol. Reductive dechlorination was inhibited by molybdate and did not occur in the absence of sulfate. These results indicate that 4‐chlorophenol is reductively dechlorinated to phenol under sulfate‐reducing conditions and mineralization of the phenol ring to CO 2 is coupled to sulfate reduction.