Biodegradation of creosote compounds: Comparison of experiments at different scales

This paper compares the results of biodegradation experiments with creosote compounds performed at different scales. The experiments include field observations, field experiments, large-scale intact laboratory column experiments, model fracture experiments, and batch experiments. Most of the experiments were conducted with till or ground water from the field site at Ringe on the island of Funen. Although the experiments were conducted on different scales, they revealed that some phenomena-e.g., an extensive biodegradation potential of several of the creosote compounds, the inhibitory influence of the pyrroles on the biodegradation of benzene, and the biodegradation of benzothiophene occurs only in the presence of a primary substrate. The experiments show that some biodegradation processes of organic compounds may be common to different microorganisms.