Carbon dioxide anaerobic reduction

Concerning the reduction step of the redox reaction, the heterotrophic microorganisms may use different electron acceptors. If oxygen is available, it is the terminal electron acceptor, and the process proceeds under aerobic conditions. In the absence of oxygen, and if nitrates are available, nitrate becomes the electron acceptor. The redox process then takes place under anoxic conditions. If neither oxygen nor nitrates are available, strictly anaerobic conditions occur, and sulfates or carbon dioxide (methane formation) are potential electron acceptors. Table 1.1 gives an overview of these process conditions related to sewer systems. 

Most recently, a highly unusual membrane composition was reported from anaerobic ammonium-oxidising (anammox) bacteria. In these bacteria, nitrite is reduced, nitrogen gas generated, and carbon dioxide is converted into organic carbon, as the consequence of ammonia reduction. This central energygenerating process can be described as ... 

While the above discussion describes testing of aerobic microbial activity, the same scenario is applicable for anaerobic bioreactions. The primary difference is the analytical parameter. The uptake of carbon dioxide, nitrate degradation, sulfate reduction, or iron reduction may be monitored instead of oxygen utilization. 

Biological. In activated sludge, <0.1% mineralized to carbon dioxide after 5 d (Freitag et al., 1985). The half-life of pentachlorobenzene in an anaerobic enrichment culture was 24 h (Beurskens et al., 1993). In an enrichment culture derived from a contaminated site in Bayou d lnde, LA, pentachlorobenzene underwent reductive dechlorination to 1,2,4,5- and 1,2,3,5-tetrachlorobenzene at relative molar yields of 9 and 91%, respectively. The maximum dechlorination rate, based on the recommended Michaelis-Menten model, was 131 nM/d (Pavlostathis and Prytula, 2000). 

Anaerobic CP degradation involves sequential reductive dehalogenations with MCPs or DCPs as final metabolites, or degradation may proceed to complete dechlorination to phenol, further transformation to benzoate and, ultimately, conversion to methane and carbon dioxide. Reductive dechlorination of PCP, for example, results in the formation of meta- or para-CPs as the end-products (e.g., Woods et al., 1989 Madsen Aamand, 1992), or anaerobic degradation may continue to complete mineralization (Boyd Shelton, 1984 Mohn Kennedy, 1992 Wu et al., 1993). In reductive dechlorinations, CPs serve as electron acceptors and need a suitable electron donor. 

The plant precursors that eventually formed coal were compacted, hardened, chemically altered, and metamorphosed by heat and pressure over geologic time. It is suspected that coal was formed from prehistoric plants that grew in swamp ecosystems. When such plants died, their biomass was deposited in anaerobic, aquatic environments where low oxygen levels prevented their reduction (rotting and release of carbon dioxide). Successive generations of this type of plant growth and death formed deep deposits of unoxidized organic matter that were subsequently covered by sediments and compacted into carboniferous deposits such as peat or bituminous or anthracite coal. Evidence of the types of plants that contributed to carboniferous deposits can occasionally be found in the shale and sandstone sediments that overlie coal deposits. 

Anaerobic reduction of CO2 to CH4 Carbon dioxide can serve as terminal electron acceptor in anaerobic hydrogen respiration. The product of this reduction is methane when certain members of the domain Archaea, the methanogens, are involved ... 

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