Pacific Institute for the Mathematical Sciences - PIMS

Studies on bioremediation in a porous medium have mainly focused on
wastewater treatment. The interest in these investigations has focused
on optimising degradation rates and substrate loading. Pore clogging
has not been studied thoroughly. When pollutant and nutrient
concentrations near the entrance hole become large, biomass growth
occurs forming films around porous medium grains; the biofilm can then
cause plugging in the regions where nutrient and pollutant
concentrations are high. In wastewater treatment, biofilms are used as
a method for controlling pollution in aquifers. In such cases the
biofilms will be used as biobarriers to limit the spread of
contaminants. In bioremediation, the biofilms consume the pollutants to
clean the aquifers. In this talk we present a one-dimensional model
suitable for the microscale simulation of biofilm activity in a porous
medim. A macroscale model is also presented.

Centre for Scientific Computing Seminar 2007