Aerobic and anaerobic microbial degradation of crude (4-methylcyclohexyl)methanol in river sediments

Cyclohexane and some of its derivatives have been a major concern because of their significant adverse human health effects and widespread occurrence in the environment. The 2014 West Virginia chemical spill has raised public attention to (4-methylcyclohexyl)methanol (4-MCHM), one cyclohexane derivative, which is widely used in coal processing but largely ignored. In particular, the environmental fate of its primary components, cis- and trans-4-MCHM, remains largely unexplored. This study aimed to investigate the degradation kinetics and mineralization of cis- and trans-4-MCHM by sediment microorganisms under aerobic and anaerobic conditions. We found the removal of cis- and trans-4-MCHM was mainly attributed to biodegradation with little contribution from sorption. A nearly complete aerobic degradation of 4-MCHM occurred within 14days, whereas the anaerobic degradation was reluctant with residual percentages of 62.6% of cis-4-MCHM and 85.0% of trans-4-MCHM after 16-day incubation. The cis-4-MCHM was degraded faster than the trans under both aerobic and anaerobic conditions, indicating an isomer-specific degradation could occur during the 4-MCHM degradation. Nitrate addition enhanced 4-MCHM mineralization by about 50% under both aerobic and anaerobic conditions. Both cis- and trans-4-MCHM fit well with the first-order kinetic model with respective degradation rates of 0.46-0.52 and 0.19-0.31day^-1 under aerobic condition. Respective degradation rates of 0.041-0.095 and 0.013-0.052day^-1 occurred under anaerobic condition. One bacterial strain capable of effectively degrading 4-MCHM isomers was isolated from river sediments and identified as Bacillus pumilus at the species level based on 16S rRNA gene sequence and 97% identity. Our findings will provide critical information for improving the prediction of the environmental fate of 4-MCHM and other cyclohexane derivatives with similar structure as well as enhancing the development of feasible treatment technologies to mitigate these compounds.