Microbial degradation of munition compounds in production wastewater

Microcosms were developed to determine the ability of microorganisms to degrade munition compounds such as TNT, dinitrotoluenes, nitrotoluenes and RDX from production wastewater. The largest percentage decrease of the nitroaromatic munition compounds was TNT with 76% removed (8196 to 1997 μg/L) within the 45-day incubation period. A decrease in concentration from 10,629 to 679 μg/L (94%) was achieved for RDX in the same time period. The greater stability of the munition compounds in the sterile control microcosms indicated that the majority of munition compound loss was due to biological activity. The results suggest that the munition degrading microorganisms would at least be able to be used in a remediation strategy, should failure of the existing treatment systems occur. Further work would be required to determine the efficacy of replacing the existing treatment methods with a biological system.