Adhesion and Deadhesion of Ureolytic Bacteria on Sand under Variable Pore Fluid Chemistry
Publication: Journal of Environmental Engineering
Volume 146, Issue 6
Abstract
It is essential to understand the phenomena of adhesion, deadhesion, and transport of microorganisms in porous media to scale up bioengineering processes. In this study, the adhesion and deadhesion of two ureolytic microorganisms were investigated in loose sand using a set of flow-through column experiments by varying the pore fluid chemistry. An increase in the ionic strength altered the surface-charge properties of the microbes and the selected geomaterial, which in turn reduced the energy barrier, leading to significant adhesion of microbes on the sand surface. After microbial adhesion, permeation of a lower-ionic-strength solution exhibited considerable bacterial deadhesion from the sand column, indicating the reversible nature of the interaction between bacteria and the sand surface. The physicochemical adhesion and deadhesion mechanisms are elucidated in terms of extended Derjaguin-Landau-Verwey-Overbeek theory. The variation of the energy barrier between the microbe and sand, the appearance of primary and secondary energy minima attributed to the change in pore fluid chemistry, and its influence on microbial adhesion and deadhesion on to the sand were also studied.
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Data Availability Statement
All data used during the study appear in the published article. There are no codes and models associated with this submission.
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Published In
Journal of Environmental Engineering
Volume 146 • Issue 6 • June 2020
Copyright
©2020 American Society of Civil Engineers.
History
Received: Jun 26, 2019
Accepted: Dec 3, 2019
Published online: Mar 30, 2020
Published in print: Jun 1, 2020
Discussion open until: Aug 30, 2020
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