Anoxic or Anaerobic Environments

At many sites, the subsurface environment will be anoxic or even anaerobic due to the activity of aerobic and facultatively anaerobic bacteria in the surface layers of the soil. It is therefore essential to take into consideration the extent to which anaerobic degradation may be expected to be significant. Reactions may take place under sulfidogenic or methanogenic conditions, and the occurrence of sulfate at sites containing building material waste and the metabolic versatility of sulfate-reducing bacteria makes them particularly attractive. 

The anaerobic degradation of phenol proceeds by carboxylation of phenyl phosphate, followed by dehydroxylation, and fission of the ring after partial reduction (Brackmann and Fuchs 1993). 

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