Biofilm growth and the related changes in the physical properties of a porous medium, 1. Experimental investigation

Taylor, Stewart W.

doi:10.1029/90wr00847

Cited by 104 publications

(120 citation statements)

References 9 publications

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“…Re p was compared with the usual critical value of 10 that indicates the frontier of the laminar regime. In that scope, an estimate of the evolution of the colonized beads diameter with porosity, d p (f), has been computed under the geometrical assumption of a uniform bead colonisation (using a procedure close to Taylor and Jaffé , 1990) and a regular beads arrangement (body centred cubic). In addition, we used the porosity measurements (presented in the next paragraph) to estimate Re p .…”

Section: Flow Regime For the Clogged Columnmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Experimental works performed on micro-columns or flowcells allowed reaching conclusions in terms of permeability reduction modelling (Cunningham et al, 1991;Taylor and Jaffé , 1990;Vandevivere and Baveye, 1992;Vandevivere et al, 1995;Vandevivere, 1995;Clement et al, 1996). The reduction level was shown to be controlled by several factors involving pore geometry, biofilm organisation in the porous media (continuous biofilm, aggregates, colonies) as well as the possible variable production of EPS, which depends on the strain and feeding conditions (Vandevivere and Baveye, 1992;Shaw et al, 1985).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 96%

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Investigation of hydrodynamic/biomass growth coupling in a pilot scale granular bioreactor at low pore Reynolds number

Karrabi

Séchet

Morra

et al. 2011

Chemical Engineering Science

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International audienceThrough a coupled experimental/modelling approach, this study investigates the functioning of a fixed bed bioreactor of Biolite beads, inoculated with Pseudomonas putida, in order to biotreat phenol contaminated waters at low Reynolds number. In particular the coupling between water flow and biomass growth is studied through the evaluation of the relationship between bed permeability reduction and biomass content as well as hydrodynamic effects on biological kinetics. In term of bioclogging, our results showed a very sharp decrease of the relative bed permeability well correlated with measured biofilm growth (for relative permeability greater than 0.8) as well as a saturation of the bed permeability at low relative porosity. However, most of the models available in the literature failed to describe our observed results. Our work permitted to show a strongly heterogeneous longitudinal biofilm development along the bed and thus a strongly heterogeneous longitudinal occupation of the porosity that decreased rapidly at the bed entry. Furthermore, the observed measured porosity saturation was shown to correspond to a biomass distribution involving the existence of channelling, through a growth/detachment equilibrium, rather than a complete clogging of the bed reactor. Biofilm microstructure built at the pore scale by bacteria (e.g. via the modulation of EPS production) probably explains the observed permeability/porosity results in the early stage of bed bioclogging. However, the present experiments do not allow measuring such a microstructuration effect. Through the analysis of a simple 1D model written at the mesoscale, we showed that the closure laws accounting for the different biological kinetics (growth, detachment, etc.) are flow dependent, as they represent effective properties and complex biological processes averaged at the mesoscale. Given the low Reynolds number investigated in the present paper, this dependency appears not only controlled by mass transfer evolution but may also involve more complex biological regulation (biological response to physical chemical stresses). As a consequence, formulations that are strictly valid at the cell scale (e.g. Monod formulation) should be used with care if no averaging or upscaling methods are used. The main conclusion of the present work is that the knowledge of macroscopic laws, such as the permeability-porosity relationship is not sufficient to account for the coupling between hydrodynamics and biomass growth in porous media. As bacterial biofilms are formed of populations able to adapt their metabolism to their evolving microenvironment, and in particular to hydrodynamic conditions, it appears that the predictive character of such models could be largely improved if these closure laws were not postulated a priori but deduced either from upscaling techniques, or, as in this paper, from ad hoc experiments performed at the global scale

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Section: Flow Regime For the Clogged Columnmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 96%

Investigation of hydrodynamic/biomass growth coupling in a pilot scale granular bioreactor at low pore Reynolds number

Karrabi

Séchet

Morra

et al. 2011

Chemical Engineering Science

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“…These works include experimental studies on physical clogging (Allison 1947;McCalla 1951), experimental studies on biological clogging (Frankenberger et al 1979;Taylor and Jaffe 1990;Cunningham et al 1991;Vandevivere and Baveye 1992) as well as conceptual models that describe biological clogging in saturated porous media (Okubo and Matsumoto 1979;Oberdorfer and Peterson 1985;Vandevivere et al 1995). The bacterial interaction in soils is usually modeled by micro-colony model, biofilm model and macroscopic model.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Numerical modeling of biological clogging on transport of nitrate in an unsaturated porous media

2014

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In order to better understand nitrogen species transport and transformation in the saturated zone, it is essential to predict the contaminant concentration in the unsaturated zone as the concentration profiles estimated from unsaturated zone forms as the input for estimation of contaminant concentration in the saturated zone. Since the nitrogen transformations occur in the presence of bacteria, there is a need to account the influence of biological clogging to develop comprehensive model of nitrogen species transport. In this study, a one-dimensional numerical model is developed to investigate the nitrogen species transport in an unsaturated porous media along with microbial clogging process. Results suggest that hydraulic conductivity is enhanced initially due to increase in the water content followed by a significant reduction at larger simulation time resulting from bioclogging. As bioclogging mitigates the hydraulic conductivity significantly, a considerable delay is observed in the ammonium nitrogen and nitrate nitrogen transport with reference to the system without bioclogging. In addition, the effect of oxygen mass transfer coefficient on biological clogging was evaluated. Numerical results suggest that as the oxygen mass transfer is decreased the ammonium nitrogen and nitrate nitrogen concentration travels a larger depth. Further numerical results strongly suggest that nitrogen species transport in the unsaturated zone is significantly affected by the presence of biological clogging.

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“…Some infiltration studies have observed more pronounced biological clogging, with bacterial colonies located deeper within experimental columns and more complete nutrient removal by bacteria at lower flow rates (Okubo and Matsumoto 1979;Characklis 1981;Rinck-Pfeiffer et al 2002). Limits on bacterial growth by fluid shear stresses are minimized by low flow rates (Taylor and Jaffé 1990;Pavelic et al 2011); thus bacterial growth should be enhanced in low-flow ASR compared with traditional ASR. AOC measures the potential for bacterial growth assuming zero shear stresses acting on the system and unlimited time to process nutrients.…”

Section: Comparisons and Implications For Low-flow Asrmentioning

confidence: 99%

Laboratory Study of Low-Flow Rates on Clogging Processes for Application to Small-Diameter Injection Wells

Thompson

Stotler

Macpherson

et al. 2015

Water Resour Manage

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A new concept in aquifer storage and recovery (ASR) aims to lower costs by using gravity-induced infiltration and small diameter wells installed with direct-push technology. Such systems will have significantly lower injection rates than traditional ASR. Clogging is a major concern for ASR systems; however, previous investigations of injection well clogging assumed a high injection rate. To address this bias, this study investigates the potential for clogging in low-flow (<0.38 m 3 /min) ASR injection wells. The effects of low-flow rate injection on hydraulic conductivity and geochemistry were examined using laboratory columns packed with sand and gravel taken from an experimental low-flow ASR site. Changes in hydraulic conductivity and geochemistry were monitored over 17 days using two types of source water (treated surface water and native groundwater) at three different flow rates (Darcy velocities 1 m/d, 3 m/d, 5 m/d). The hydraulic conductivity of the lowest flow rate columns decreased below initial levels by at least one order of magnitude during the experiment. Observations of biofilm in effluent tubing suggest bacterial clogging reduced the hydraulic conductivity in medium and low flow treated surface water columns, but bacterial abundance was not quantified in this study. Clay dispersion was estimated to be an important process, partially reversing the bacterial clogging. Further understanding of clogging factors at low flow rates will aid in the selection of the most beneficial clogging prediction tests and pretreatment and redevelopment methods for low-flow ASR systems.

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Biofilm growth and the related changes in the physical properties of a porous medium, 1. Experimental investigation

Cited by 104 publications

References 9 publications

Investigation of hydrodynamic/biomass growth coupling in a pilot scale granular bioreactor at low pore Reynolds number

Investigation of hydrodynamic/biomass growth coupling in a pilot scale granular bioreactor at low pore Reynolds number

Numerical modeling of biological clogging on transport of nitrate in an unsaturated porous media

Laboratory Study of Low-Flow Rates on Clogging Processes for Application to Small-Diameter Injection Wells

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