The widespread use of methyl tert-butyl ether (MTBE) as a gasoline additive
has resulted in a large number of cases of groundwater contamination. Bior
emediation is often proposed as the most promising alternative after treatm
ent. However, MTBE biodegradation appears to be quite different from the bi
odegradation of usual gasoline contaminants such as benzene, toluene, ethyl
benzene and xylene (BTEX). In the present paper, the characteristics of a
consortium degrading MTBE in liquid cultures are presented and discussed. M
TBE degradation rate was fast and followed zero order kinetics when added a
t 100 mg l(-1). The residual MTBE concentration in batch degradation experi
ments ranged from below the detection limit (1 mug l(-1)) to 50 mug l(-1).
The specific activity of the consortium ranged from 7 to 52 mg(MTBE) g(dw)(
-1) h(-1) (i.e. 19-141 mg(COD) g(dw)(-1) h(-1)). Radioisotope experiments s
howed that 79% of the carbon-MTBE was converted to carbon-carbon dioxide. T
he consortium was also capable of degrading a variety of hydrocarbons, incl
uding tert-butyl alcohol (TBA), tert-amyl methyl ether (TAME) and gasoline
constituents such as benzene, toluene, ethylbenzene and xylene (BTEX). The
consortium was also characterized by a very slow growth rate (0.1 d(-1)), a
low overall biomass yield (0-11 g(dw) g(MTBE)(-1); i.e. 0.040 g(dw) g(COD)
(-1)), a high affinity for MTBE and a low affinity for oxygen, which may be
a reason for the slow or absence of MTBE biodegradation in situ. Still, th
e results presented here show promising perspectives for engineering the in
situ bioremediation of MTBE.