Title:
Fate and effect of naphthenic acids in biological systems

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dc.contributor.advisor Pavlostathis, Spyros G.
dc.contributor.author Misiti, Teresa Marie en_US
dc.contributor.committeeMember Ching-Hua Huang
dc.contributor.committeeMember Jim Spain
dc.contributor.committeeMember Sotira Yiacoumi
dc.contributor.committeeMember Sujit Banerjee
dc.contributor.department Civil and Environmental Engineering en_US
dc.date.accessioned 2013-01-17T21:10:22Z
dc.date.available 2013-01-17T21:10:22Z
dc.date.issued 2012-08-23 en_US
dc.description.abstract Naphthenic acids (NAs) are carboxylic acids found in crude oil and petroleum products. The objectives of the research presented here were to: a) assess the occurrence and fate of NAs in crude oil and refinery wastewater streams; b) evaluate the biotransformation potential and inhibitory effects of NAs under nitrifying, denitrifying and methanogenic/fermentative conditions; c) investigate the factors affecting NA biotransformation under aerobic conditions and the microbes involved; and d) assess the toxicity of individual model NAs using quantitative structure-activity relationships (QSAR) and examine the effect of structure on NA biotransformation potential. NAs are ubiquitous in refinery wastewater streams and the desalter brine was found to be the main source of NAs in refinery wastewater. A commercial NA mixture was not biodegraded under nitrate-reducing or methanogenic/fermentative conditions. NAs were degraded under aerobic conditions by an NA-enriched culture; however, a residual fraction was not degraded under all conditions studied. The results indicated that NAs are not inherently recalcitrant and the residual fraction was due to the individual NA concentrations being below the minimum substrate concentrations at which they are no longer degraded. A fraction of the NA mixture was completely mineralized to carbon dioxide, with the remaining portion biotransformed to more oxidized intermediates. Overall, the results indicated that NAs were degraded under aerobic conditions; however, biological treatment of NA-bearing wastewater will not completely remove NA concentrations and thus, biological treatment must be combined with physical/chemical treatment to achieve complete NA removal. en_US
dc.description.degree PhD en_US
dc.identifier.uri http://hdl.handle.net/1853/45796
dc.publisher Georgia Institute of Technology en_US
dc.subject Naphthenic acids en_US
dc.subject Petroleum refinery wastewater en_US
dc.subject.lcsh Organic acids
dc.subject.lcsh Petroleum refineries
dc.subject.lcsh Biotransformation (Metabolism)
dc.title Fate and effect of naphthenic acids in biological systems en_US
dc.type Text
dc.type.genre Dissertation
dspace.entity.type Publication
local.contributor.advisor Pavlostathis, Spyros G.
local.contributor.corporatename School of Civil and Environmental Engineering
local.contributor.corporatename College of Engineering
relation.isAdvisorOfPublication 4b10037e-c1df-45bc-abca-1da6d3389c46
relation.isOrgUnitOfPublication 88639fad-d3ae-4867-9e7a-7c9e6d2ecc7c
relation.isOrgUnitOfPublication 7c022d60-21d5-497c-b552-95e489a06569
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