Bioconcentration for Ionizable Organics (BIONIC)
BIONIC v3 is the latest version of a mechanistic model for estimating the bioconcentration factor (BCF, L/kg) of neutral organic and ionizable organic chemicals (IOCs) in fish. The main features and modelling approaches for the original BIONIC model (v1) are described in Armitage et al. 2013. In short, BIONIC is a modification of the Arnot and Gobas 2004 AQUAWEB model for neutral organic chemicals such that the model can be applied to IOCs as well. The model has been further developed and tested over the course of the CEFIC-LRI ECO21 project which ended in 2015 and the CEFIC-LRI ECO37 project which ended in 2020.
Some key features of the BIONIC v3 model are the following:
- i)Domain of applicability expanded to include quaternary ammonium compounds (QACs)
- ii)Proximate composition of organism expanded to include storage lipids, membrane lipids, serum albumin, structural proteins and water
iii) Gill uptake model revised to account for the transport of neutral and charged forms into the organism (pH-dependent kinetics)
Users can readily define multiple exposure scenarios to assess the influence of biological and environmental conditions (e.g., temperature, pH, dissolved oxygen, TOC) on predicted BCFs. In addition to predicted BCFs, model output includes kinetic information (e.g., gill uptake efficiency and uptake rate constant, all elimination rate constants, time to 95% steady-state) and a summary of all entered and estimated partitioning data used in the calculations.
– Armitage, J. M.; Arnot, J. A.; Wania, F.; Mackay, D. 2013. Development and evaluation of a mechanistic bioconcentration model for ionogenic organic chemicals in fish. Environ. Toxicol. Chem. 32, (1), 115–128. DOI: 10.1002/etc.2020
The BIONIC models are implemented (coded) in Visual Basic for Applications (VBA) and the Graphical User Interface is designed in Excel™. The BIONIC models will only function properly on a Windows operating system. The computer must use the period (.) as the decimal separator rather than the comma (,) to ensure accurate results.