The impacts of the AOC concentration on biofilm formation under higher shear force condition

Abstract

The logistic growth model was applied in the study to evaluate the impacts of assimilable organic carbon (AOC) concentration on the growth characteristics of biofilm and bulk bacteria under high flow velocity condition. The experimental results showed that there existed a growth and decline relation between biofilm and bulk bacteria at the low (0.05 mg/L) and medium (0.5 mg/L) AOC levels. Increasing the AOC concentration up to 1.0 mg/L, it resulted in high amounts of biofilm and bulk bacteria simultaneously. Although the carrying capacity of biofilm bacteria at the medium condition of AOC level was substantially reduced, the specific growth rate (GR) of biofilm bacteria was largest at this condition. It showed that the reduction of biofilm bacteria quantity did not represent the suppression of bacterial growth. The quantity of bulk water bacteria was obviously dependent with the quantity of biofilm bacteria and the increase of free bacteria with time in networks was mainly due to the growth and detachment of biofilm bacteria, not due to the growth of free bacteria themselves. The maximum growth rate of biofilm bacteria was increased upon increasing the AOC level. It indicated that the AOC level was an important factor affecting the growth of biofilm bacteria.