BIOM&S Seminar: Modeling One-Dimensional Biofilms in Porous Media

SPEAKER:   HARRY GAEBLER

ABSTRACT:

I begin by deriving a multi-scale, single substrate, single species biofilm growth model in a porous medium reactor. The starting point is the traditional mesoscopic one-dimensional Wanner-Gujer biofilm model. Mesoscopic processes included in the model are hydrodynamics and transport of substrates in the reactor, biofilm and suspended bacteria growth in the pore space through consumption of a single, non-reproducing growth limiting substrate, attachment of suspended cells to the biofilm, detachment of biofilm cells, and cell lysis. The mesoscopic equations are up-scaled from the biofilm scale to the reactor scale, yielding a stiff system of quasilinear hyperbolic balance laws, which are studied numerically. I will discuss the implications of suspended bacteria and the effect attachment has on reactor performance. I then extend the model framework to a multispecies, multisubstrate uranium bioreduction system.