CL-Out Bioaugmentation Saves Time and Money

By switching from active extraction to in situ CL-Out® bioremediation, In Control Technologies, Inc. of Houston, Texas saved their client $100,000s in on-going operation and maintenance costs.  The Site was a shopping center where soil and ground water were contaminated by dry cleaning chemicals.  A dual phase extraction system was installed and operated for 9 years.  The dual phase system reduced the total CVOCs by 70%, but the contaminant removal rate  reached the limit of cost effectiveness.

By switching to bioremediation, the client avoided $75,000 on-going annual operation and maintenance cost with a $20,000 investment in bioremediation. CL-Out® bioremediation reduced the residual contamination by more than 98% in less than 90 days.  This case study was reported at the 9th In Situ and On-Site Bioremediation Symposium, 2007

Irwin Engineers, Inc., of Natick, Massachusetts has undertaken a similar approach to reduce on-going pump and treat remediation costs at a site of perchlorate contamination.  Irwin Engineering presented that case study at the AEHS Soils, Sediment, Water and Energy Conference (2013).

Research on Aerobic Cometabolism of PCE

Aerobic cometabolism of PCE and other halogenated solvents by Pseudomonas sp.  has been well established for more than 20 years.  The following research articles were key in the development of this approach to bioremediation.  This academic research provided parallel support to CL Solutions’ successful application of aerobic cometabolism to bioremediation of hundreds of contaminated sites since 1999.

Vandenbergh, P. A., and Kunka, B. S., Metabolism of Volatile Chlorinated Aliphatic Hydrocarbons by Pseudomonas fluorescens, Applied and Environmental Microbiology, v. 54, no. 10, Oct. 1988. p. 2578 – 2579.

Deckard, L. A., Willis, J. C., and Rivers, D. B. , Evidence for the Aerobic Degradation of Tetrachloroethylene by a Bacterial Isolate, Biotechnology Letters, v16, no. 11, November, 1994. p 1221-1224.

Ryoo, D., Shim, H., Canada, K., Barbieri, P., and Wood, T.K., Aerobic Degradation of Tetrachloroethylene by Toluene-O-xylene Monooxygenase of Pseudomonas stutzeri OX1, Nature Biotechnology, vol 18, July, 2000. p 775 – 778.

Shim, H., Ryoo, D., Barbieri, P, and Wood, T.K., Aerobic Degradation of Mixtures of Tetrachloroethylene, Trichloroethylene, Dichloroethylenes, and Vinyl Chloride by Toluene-O-Xylene Monooxygenase of Pseudomonas stutzeri OX1, Applied Microbiol Biotechnol, v. 56, May 2001. p 265-269.