Numerical simulation of dual-species biofilms in porous media

Abstract

There are bacteria that can form strong biofilms in porous media. The biofilms can be used as biobarriers to restrict the flow of pollutants. If a second species of bacteria that can actually react with the contaminants is added to the biobarrier, the result is a much more effective way of controlling the pollutants. We propose a mathematical model for the formation of these biobarriers and numerically solve the resulting equations for the flow, transport and reactions. Qualitative comparisons with some experimental results are also given.