Registration Dossier
Registration Dossier
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EC number: 231-765-0 | CAS number: 7722-84-1
Biodegradation in water: screening tests
Administrative data
Link to relevant study record(s)
Description of key information
Hydrogen peroxide is therefore considered as readily biodegradable in sewage treatment plants, with a half-life of 2 minutes (rate constant of 21 h-1).
Key value for chemical safety assessment
- Biodegradation in water:
- readily biodegradable
Additional information
The decomposition of hydrogen peroxide in municipal sewage sludge was rapid, resulting in a half-life of 2 minutes (Groeneveld and de Groot 1999). This value is conservative, since there was no adaptation of the sludge, and because 2 minutes is the maximum half-life observed in the test. Similar findings on the rapid decomposition of hydrogen peroxide were made in a simulation study by Larish and Duff (1997) in a laboratory-scale simulated STP for pulp and paper mill effluents. A half-life in the range of several minutes can be extracted from the data determined for 25°C and 20 - 200 mg activated sludge/L. However, the amounts of mixed liquor used in the tests were very low (10 mL) and the documentation is insufficient. Therefore, this study can only serve as additional information confirming the rapid biologically catalysed decomposition of hydrogen peroxide. Spain et al. (1989) determined degradation half-lives of maximally 6 minutes for hydrogen peroxide in microbial communities present in an infiltration gallery of a contaminated soil remediation site. Since microbial counts were in the range of those in sewage sludge, these tests provide additional information on ready biodegradability. All references demonstrated that degradation in sludge is mainly biologically mediated, since no degradation was observed in substrates deactivated by autoclaving and/or treatment with HgCl2. While the respiration of activated sludge can be reversibly inhibited by shock doses of hydrogen peroxide, it was also shown that adaptation to a concentration of 500 mg/L hydrogen peroxide led to increased resistance against shock dosing (Larish and Duff 1997). Hydrogen peroxide is therefore considered as readily biodegradable in sewage treatment plants, with a half-life of 2 minutes (rate constant of 21 h-1).
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