Solubilities of Toluene, Benzene and TCE in High-Biomass Systems

Abstract

We report measurements of solubility limits for benzene, toluene, and TCE in systems that contain varying levels of biomass up to 0.13 g/mL. The solubility limit increased from 20 to 48 mM when biomass (in the form of yeast) was added to aqueous batch systems containing benzene. The toluene solubility limit increased from 4.9 to greater than 20 mM. For TCE, the solubility increased from 8 mM to more than 1000 mM. Solubility for TCE was most heavily impacted by biomass levels, changing by two orders of magnitude.