The focus of this paper was to study the toxicity and degradability of
2,4-dichlorophenol in methanogenic acetate enrichment systems. Anaero
bic toxicity assays (serum bottle study) and upflow column studies wer
e performed. This research showed that up to 85 ppm of 2,4-dichlorophe
nol does not cause significant inhibition to the acetate enrichment me
thanogenic culture and up to 25 ppm of 2,4-dichlorophenol can be effec
tively removed anaerobically with no detectable intermediate chlorophe
nols in the effluent.