Methyl-tert-butyl ether (MTBE) is a commonly used gasoline additive. Leaking underground storage tank systems, spills, and pipeline failures are the causes of reported groundwater contamination with MTBE. The impact of vegetation on MTBE plume transport in groundwater and volatilization was experimentally examined. The experimental system consists of six channels, five of which are planted with...

Methyl tert-butyl ether (MTBE) was originally introduced as an additive to increase octane number into gasoline in the 1970s. Its use was primarily as an octane enhancer to replace lead in gasoline. Later on, it was also used as an oxygenate, up to 15% v/v, to accomplish a cleaner burning fuel with reduced emissions of carbon monoxide and hydrocarbons. The problem with MTBE is that it has cause...

A widely used gasoline additive, methyl tertiary butyl ether (MTBE), has been controversial, in part because of concerns about potential inhalation health effects and more recently because of added concerns about water contamination. Although many of the issues related to MTBE have not been fully resolved, several apparent paradoxes can be discerned, including the fact that something intended t...

Methyl tertiary butyl ether (MTBE) rapidly dissolves cholesterol gall stones in vitro and in vivo. To further characterise tolerability and safety of this aliphatic ether, either MTBE (1 ml/kg body wt daily for two days) or an equal amount of saline was infused into the common bile duct (CBD) of eight cholecystectomised rabbits. Transient vomiting, dyspnoea and somnolence developed during MTBE ...

Cells of Mycobacterium vaccae were grown in toluene, ethanol, methyl tert-butyl ether (MTBE) and glycerol, exhibiting different degrees of tolerance towards these compounds, and being able to use both ethanol and glycerol as sole carbon and energy sources. Cellular adaptation to ethanol and MTBE led to significant changes in the membrane fatty acid (FA) composition, by modifications in the prop...

Abstract: This paper reports the results of an FT-IR and NIR study of N-methylformamide in carbon tetrachloride solution in presence of ethers as the O-electron donors, i.e., diethyl ether (DEE), diisopropyl ether (DiPE), methyl t-butyl ether (MtBE), dibutyl ether (DBE), dipentyl ether (DPE), tetrahydrofuran (THF) and tetrahydropyran (THP). The spectroscopic characteristics of the N–H···O hydro...

A microbial consortium that degrades ethyl-tert-butyl ether (ETBE) as the sole source of carbon and energy under aerobic conditions was selected from a gasoline-polluted soil. This consortium consists of a variety of microorganisms with a predominance of filamentous morphology. Degradation of ETBE was found to be solely related to bacterial activity. After prolonged cultivation followed by succ...

Methyl-t-butyl-ether (MTBE) has become a prevalent groundwater pollutant due to its high volume use as a nationwide gasoline additive. Given its physicochemical properties, it requires new treatment approaches. Both aqueous O(3) and a combination of O(3)/H(2)O(2), which gives *OH, can remove MTBE from water, making use of O(3) a viable technology for remediation of groundwater from fuel contami...

A methyl tert-butyl ether (MTBE) / tert-butyl alcohol (TBA) plume originating from a gasoline spill in late 1994 at Vandenberg Air Force Base (VAFB) persisted for over 15 years within 200 feet of the original spill source. The plume persisted until 2010 despite excavation of the tanks and piping within months after the spill and excavations of additional contaminated sediments from the source a...