Granular Sludge Consortia for Bioremediation

Anthropogenic compounds are manufactured chemicals that are characterized by structures or substituents that make them resistant to biodegradation in the environment (1 ). Their persistence is not exclusively related to structure, but also highly dependent on environmental factors (see Chapter 1), such as accessibility, concentration, presence of auxiliary carbon sources and the necessary microor- ganisms. Phenol, chlorophenols, tetrachloroethene, and dihydroxybenzenes are anthropogenic compounds and generally poorly biodegradable in the environ- ment. Some anthropogenic compounds are degraded anaerobically in batch cul- tures and in various anaerobic bioreactors (2 -8 ), making it possible to use anaerobic bacteria in the treatment of wastewaters containing these substances.