This press release is available in German.
Leipzig. The carcinogenic harmful substance benzene can seriously impact the soil and ground water following chemical accidents or at old industrial sites. Nevertheless, bacteria exist which can degrade this compound even in the absence of oxygen. Until now it was not clear which organisms take part in this process and how they work together. With modern analytical procedures scientists of the Helmholtz Centre for Environmental Research (UFZ) have succeeded for the first time in tracking the path of this harmful substance through such a bacterial community with proteins. Accordingly, three teams of microbial harmful substance eliminators cooperate, each with its own tasks. In the professional publication ISME Journal, jointly issued by the Nature Publishing Group and the International Society for Microbial Ecology, the researchers say that this method could also help to clarify the complex processes in other bacterial cooperatives.
On the premises of the former Zeitz hydrogenation plant in Saxony-Anhalt traces of chemicals from earlier times are still present. The plant began the extraction of liquid fuels and lubricants from lignite in 1938. When the allied forces bombed and largely destroyed the plant in the final months of the Second World War, large amounts of harmful substances seeped into the ground and into the ground water. Further impacting came during the era of East Germany when Zeitz developed to a centre for the processing of coal and crude oil. In the meantime the old production facilities have been torn down and the required restoration work is continuing under the direction of the federal state of Saxony-Anhalt. However, residual contamination, particularly in the deeper areas, will remain. In the sediment and ground water, above all a group of compounds is found which chemists refer to by the abbreviation BTEX. This stands for the highly volatile a
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| Contact: Tilo Arnhold presse@ufz.de 49-341-235-1635 Helmholtz Association of German Research Centres Source:Eurekalert |
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