Microbial Transport in Saturated Porous Media

Abstract

Microbial transport in porous media is a hot issue in fields of hydrology and water environment. Researches on the issue are helpful to restrain water-borne diseases and to improve the efficiency of polluted groundwater recovery. Over the past 15 years, the understanding about microbial transport in a saturated porous media has been improved substantially. However, the DLVO theory and the colloid filtration theory cannot support a sufficient explanation in microbial transport. Straining, heterogeneity, pore scale force/ torque balance, microbial features, growth and death significantly affect the microbial transport of which mechanisms and modeling need to be enhanced in future studies. In addition, results from laboratorial studies are mostly different with field results, which highlights the necessity to do more field researches. In field experiments, there are many uncontrollable factors and complex situations compared with laboratorial experiments. More field experiments will offer valuable chances to get a thorough comprehension of microbial transport promoting development of transport mechanisms and models. New models tend to become more complicated when trying to integrate more mechanisms. Therefore, how to find the main mechanisms simplifying models and improving efficiency is also a key question.