A Half-Century Perspective on the Microbial Bioremediation of PCBs.
4 affiliations
- 1Department of Chemical, Biochemical and Environmental Engineering, University of Maryland, Baltimore County, Baltimore, Maryland21250, United States.
- 2Department of Environmental Sciences, Rutgers University, New Brunswick, New Jersey08901, United States.
- 3Medical University of South Carolina , Charleston, South Carolina29425, United States.
- 4Institute of Marine and Environmental Biotechnology, University of Maryland, Baltimore County, Baltimore, Maryland21202, United States.
Abstract
Microbial biotransformation of PCBs was first observed in the field and in laboratory studies nearly five decades ago. Following years of investigation (on both aerobic biodegradation or mineralization and anaerobic dechlorination), bioremediation technologies are emerging for PCB-contaminated sediments. This perspective examines the arc of scientific and engineering developments that eventually brought us to today's approach of combining anaerobic and aerobic metabolism in an in situ bioaugmentation application. Although an understanding of aerobic biodegradation of lesser chlorinated biphenyls was developed early on, more extensively chlorinated congeners were found to be resistant to oxidative transformation. Major discoveries in the microbiology of anaerobic PCB dechlorination remained necessary, including understanding of pathways, PCB-dechlorinating bacteria, kinetics, and the interaction of biological processes with the physical environment of sediment-associated PCBs. Recent developments linking microbial kinetics to dissolved-phase PCBs and identification of factors that limited bacterial growth on PCBs are eliminating bottlenecks and have facilitated field translation. A focus in the last decade on scaling the growth of a PCB-dechlorinating bacterial species to a commercially viable level, and developments in field application methods for in situ bioaugmentation have facilitated multiple field demonstrations of PCB bioremediation. These field trials, in synergy with in situ remediation of sediments with activated carbon amendment, provide a path to achieve rapid reduction of PCB exposure to the ecosystem while significantly enhancing the rate of biodegradation.
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BibTeX
@article{ghosh2026halfcentury,
title = {{A Half-Century Perspective on the Microbial Bioremediation of PCBs.}},
author = {Upal Ghosh and Donna Fennell and Harold May and Kevin Sowers and Yu Ting},
journal = {Environmental science \& technology},
year = {2026},
month = sep,
doi = {10.1021/acs.est.6c07322},
url = {https://europepmc.org/article/MED/42916432},
note = {CC BY-NC-ND},
}
RIS
TY - JOUR
TI - A Half-Century Perspective on the Microbial Bioremediation of PCBs.
AU - Upal Ghosh
AU - Donna Fennell
AU - Harold May
AU - Kevin Sowers
AU - Yu Ting
PY - 2026
DA - 2026/09/01
JO - Environmental science & technology
DO - 10.1021/acs.est.6c07322
UR - https://europepmc.org/article/MED/42916432
AB - Microbial biotransformation of PCBs was first observed in the field and in laboratory studies nearly five decades ago. Following years of investigation (on both aerobic biodegradation or mineralization and anaerobic dechlorination), bioremediation technologies are emerging for PCB-contaminated sediments. This perspective examines the arc of scientific and engineering developments that eventually brought us to today's approach of combining anaerobic and aerobic metabolism in an in situ bioaugmentation application. Although an understanding of aerobic biodegradation of lesser chlorinated biphenyls was developed early on, more extensively chlorinated congeners were found to be resistant to oxidative transformation. Major discoveries in the microbiology of anaerobic PCB dechlorination remained necessary, including understanding of pathways, PCB-dechlorinating bacteria, kinetics, and the interaction of biological processes with the physical environment of sediment-associated PCBs. Recent developments linking microbial kinetics to dissolved-phase PCBs and identification of factors that limited bacterial growth on PCBs are eliminating bottlenecks and have facilitated field translation. A focus in the last decade on scaling the growth of a PCB-dechlorinating bacterial species to a commercially viable level, and developments in field application methods for in situ bioaugmentation have facilitated multiple field demonstrations of PCB bioremediation. These field trials, in synergy with in situ remediation of sediments with activated carbon amendment, provide a path to achieve rapid reduction of PCB exposure to the ecosystem while significantly enhancing the rate of biodegradation.
SN - 0013-936X
SN - 1520-5851
ER -