The assessment of complex mixture biodegradability can be limited by technical issues and/or difficulties to rule on ready or inherent biodegradability. This work is composed of three different studies to introduce and improve Ultimately Transformed Organic Carbon (UTOC) as a quantification tool for biodegradation. The UTOC includes the inorganic carbon resulting from respiration and the carbon assimilated by microorganisms. The UTOC is correlated with dissolved organic carbon removal and can be a robust alternative for non-soluble substance evaluation. The UTOC was evaluated using a complex mixture of soluble and non-soluble substances and verified with an UVCB (vegetal extract). The advantages of UTOC are clear; it is an appropriate method to quantify the initial raw material converted into an inert product by the action of microorganisms and to determine the ready biodegradability of an unknown substance such as a vegetal extract.

中文翻译：

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使用碳平衡法评估复杂化学混合物的生物降解性

复杂混合物生物降解能力的评估可能会受到技术问题和/或难以控制现成或固有生物降解能力的限制。这项工作由三项不同的研究组成，旨在引入和改进最终转化的有机碳（UTOC）作为生物降解的定量工具。UTOC包括呼吸产生的无机碳和微生物吸收的碳。UTOC与溶解性有机碳的去除相关，可以作为非溶解性物质评估的可靠替代方案。使用可溶性和非可溶性物质的复杂混合物评估UTOC，并用UVCB（植物提取物）验证。UTOC的优势显而易见。