The significance of biofilms in porous media

Journal Article · Thu Jul 01 04:00:00 EDT 1993 · Water Resources Research; (United States)

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1029/93WR00611· OSTI ID:5484678

Rittmann, B E ^[1]

---

1. Northwestern Univ., Evanston, IL (United States)

The recent literature contains conflicting claims about the characteristics of attached bacteria in subsurface porous media and how these characteristics affect permeability reduction. Some claim that the bacteria form continuous biofilms that restrict the pore size, while others claim that bacteria are attached in patchy aggregates that accumulate in pore throats. This contribution applies a recently developed tool from biofilm kinetics, the normalized surface loading, to interpret a wide range of experimental data from porous media experiments and biological filtration. The normalized surface loading is the actual substrate flux (i.e., rate of removal per unit surface area) divided by the minimum flux capable of supporting a deep biofilm. The analyses show that biofilms are continuous for normalized surface loadings greater than 1.0, but appear to become discontinuous for values less than about 0.25. For the low-load situation, distinguishing between continuous and discontinuous biofilms is not important when the modeling goal is prediction of substrate removal. However, the distinction is more critical when the modeling goal is to describe the spatial contribution of biomass and permeability loss. 62 refs., 1 fig., 1 tab.

• OSTI ID: 5484678
• Journal Information: Water Resources Research; (United States), Journal Name: Water Resources Research; (United States) Vol. 29:7; ISSN WRERAQ; ISSN 0043-1397
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES
540210* -- Environment
Terrestrial-- Basic Studies-- (1990-)
550700 -- Microbiology
59 BASIC BIOLOGICAL SCIENCES
AQUIFERS
BACTERIA
ECOLOGICAL CONCENTRATION
ENVIRONMENTAL EFFECTS
MATERIALS
MICROORGANISMS
MICROSTRUCTURE
PERMEABILITY
PORE STRUCTURE
POROSITY
POROUS MATERIALS
SOILS