Bacterial transport in gas-sparged porous medium

Journal Article · Thu Jul 01 04:00:00 EDT 1999 · Journal of Environmental Engineering

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1061/(ASCE)0733-9372(1999)125:7(668)· OSTI ID:6377964

Fang, Y ^[1]; Logan, B E ^[2]

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1. Univ. of Arizona, Tucson, AZ (United States). Dept. of Chemical and Environmental Engineering
2. Pennsylvania State Univ., University Park, PA (United States). Dept. of Civil and Environmental Engineering

To improve the feasibility of soil-aquifer remediation using bioaugmentation, more efficient methods are needed to widely disperse pollutant-degrading bacteria in porous media. Under water-saturated conditions, bacteria readily adhere to soil particles, but under unsaturated conditions, bacteria preferentially accumulate in the air-water interface. Air sparging a saturated porous medium produces a mobile water interface that was hypothesized to facilitate bacterial transport. To investigate whether gas sparging increased bacterial transport relative to saturated-water conditions, the transport of three strains of bacteria and negatively charged microspheres of different relative hydrophobicities R[sub H] was measured in saturated and gas-sparged quartz-packed columns. Gas sparging increased (>60%) the bacterial transport in only one case (Pseudomonas fluorescens P17; R[sub H] = 27%). Transport of the other two strains were either unaffected by gas sparging (Mycobacterium vaccae JOB5; R[sub H] = 33%), or was reduced (Pseudomonas aeruginosa; R[sub H] = 75%) relative to water-saturated conditions. Microspheres were the most hydrophobic (R[sub H] = 98%) and the most retained of all particles under saturated conditions, but microsphere transport was unaffected by gas sparging. These preliminary results suggest that the effect of gas sparging on colloid transport is particle specific and not predictable from measurement of relative hydrophobicity.

• OSTI ID: 6377964
• Journal Information: Journal of Environmental Engineering, Journal Name: Journal of Environmental Engineering Vol. 125:7; ISSN 0733-9372; ISSN JOEEDU
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES
540220* -- Environment
Terrestrial-- Chemicals Monitoring & Transport-- (1990-)
AQUIFERS
BACTERIA
BIODEGRADATION
CHEMICAL REACTIONS
DECOMPOSITION
ENVIRONMENTAL TRANSPORT
MASS TRANSFER
MATERIALS
MICROORGANISMS
POROUS MATERIALS
REMEDIAL ACTION
SOILS