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Environmental fate & pathways

Biodegradation in soil

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Description of key information

More than 99% of the soil tetrachloroethylene was dechlorinated in less than 200 days of incubation under either sulfate-reducing or methanogenic conditions at 20 °C. The half-life in soil was greater than 38.5 days (Pavlostathis SG and Zhuang P, 1993)

Key value for chemical safety assessment

Half-life in soil:
38.5 d
at the temperature of:
290 K

Additional information

Based upon the data reported tetrachloroethylene undergoes anaerobic degradation. The process by which the degradation occurs is reductive dechlorination, the degradation products reported are trichloroethylene, dichloroethylene, vinyl chloride, ethene and ethane. The degradation products found vary and are dependent upon the experimental conditions used.