Influence of Microbial Growth on Hydraulic Properties of Pore Networks

From laboratory experiments it is known that bacterial biomass is able to influence the hydraulic properties of saturated porous media, an effect called bioclogging. To interpret the observations of these experiments and to predict possible bioclogging effects on the field scale it is necessary to use transport models, which are able to include bioclogging. For these models it is necessary to know the relation between the amount of biomass and the hydraulic conductivity of the porous medium. Usually these relations were determined using bundles of parallel pore channels and do not account for interconnections between the pores in more than one dimension. The present study uses two-dimensional pore network models to study the effects of bioclogging on the pore scale. Numerical simulations were done for two different scenarios of the growth of biomass in the pores. Scenario 1 assumes microbial growth in discrete colonies clogging particular pores completely. Scenario 2 assumes microbial growth as a biofilm growing on the wall of each pore. In both scenarios the hydraulic conductivity was reduced by at least two orders of magnitude, but for the colony scenario much less biomass was needed to get a maximal clogging effect and a better agreement with previously published experimental data could be found. For both scenarios it was shown that heterogeneous pore networks could be clogged with less biomass than more homogeneous ones.

[1]  Myron B. Allen,et al.  Macroscale Properties of Porous Media from a Network Model of Biofilm Processes , 1998 .

[2]  L. E. Scriven,et al.  Percolation and conduction on Voronoi and triangular networks: a case study in topological disorder , 1984 .

[3]  J. Koplik,et al.  Network model for deep bed filtration , 2001 .

[4]  Philippe C. Baveye,et al.  Environmental impact and mechanisms of the biological clogging of saturated soils and aquifer materials , 1998 .

[5]  B. Herrling,et al.  Modeling of biologically mediated redox processes in the subsurface , 1994 .

[6]  Wolfgang Kinzelbach,et al.  Simulation of reactive processes related to biodegradation in aquifers: 1. Structure of the three-dimensional reactive transport model , 1998 .

[7]  Alfred B. Cunningham,et al.  Influence of Biofilm Accumulation on Porous Media Hydrodynamics , 1991 .

[8]  H. S. Fogler,et al.  Biomass evolution in porous media and its effects on permeability under starvation conditions. , 2000, Biotechnology and bioengineering.

[9]  Wolfgang Kinzelbach,et al.  Numerical Modeling of Natural and Enhanced Denitrification Processes in Aquifers , 1991 .

[10]  Brian J. Suchomel,et al.  Network Model of Flow, Transport and Biofilm Effects in Porous Media , 1998 .

[11]  Stewart W. Taylor,et al.  Biofilm growth and the related changes in the physical properties of a porous medium. 3. Dispersivity and model verification. , 1990 .

[12]  Stewart W. Taylor,et al.  Biofilm growth and the related changes in the physical properties of a porous medium: 2. Permeability , 1990 .

[13]  Wang,et al.  Critical Condensate Saturation in Porous Media. , 1999, Journal of colloid and interface science.

[14]  F. Civan,et al.  Practical model for chemically induced formation damage , 1997 .

[15]  Philippe C. Baveye,et al.  Microbial Clogging of Saturated Soils and Aquifer Materials: Evaluation of Mathematical Models , 1995 .

[16]  Mary F. Wheeler,et al.  Modeling of in-situ biorestoration of organic compounds in groundwater , 1991 .

[17]  Hans-Jörg Vogel,et al.  A new approach for determining effective soil hydraulic functions , 1998 .

[18]  G. Coskuner.  Microvisual Study of Multiphase Gas Condensate Flow in Porous Media , 1997 .

[19]  Perry L. McCarty,et al.  Mesoscale and Microscale Observations of Biological Growth in a Silicon Pore Imaging Element , 1999 .

[20]  Wilfried Brutsaert,et al.  PROBABILITY LAWS FOR PORE-SIZE DISTRIBUTIONS , 1966 .

[21]  Brian Berkowitz,et al.  PERCOLATION THEORY AND ITS APPLICATION TO GROUNDWATER HYDROLOGY , 1993 .

[22]  H. S. Fogler,et al.  Network model for straining dominated particle entrapment in porous media , 1987 .

[23]  Renduo Zhang,et al.  EXPERIMENTAL STUDY ON THE REDUCTION OF SOIL HYDRAULIC CONDUCTIVITY BY ENHANCED BIOMASS GROWTH , 1997 .

[24]  Philippe C. Baveye,et al.  Saturated Hydraulic Conductivity Reduction Caused by Aerobic Bacteria in Sand Columns , 1992 .

[25]  Chi Tien,et al.  Advances in deep bed filtration , 1979 .

[26]  Perry L. McCarty,et al.  Impact of colony morphologies and disinfection on biological clogging in porous media , 2000 .

[27]  R. Gillham,et al.  Pore Scale Variation in Retardation Factor as a Cause of Nonideal Reactive Breakthrough Curves: 2. Pore Network Analysis , 1995 .

[28]  Visualization Experiments at the Pore Scale , 1996 .

[29]  Michael A. Celia,et al.  Contaminant transport and biodegradation: 2. Conceptual model and test simulations , 1989 .

[30]  Bacterial clogging of porous media: a new modelling approach , 1995 .

[31]  C. Kaiser.  A Directed Percolation Model for Clogging in a Porous Medium with Small Inhomogeneities , 1997 .

[32]  E. Sudicky,et al.  Simulation of biodegradable organic contaminants in groundwater. 1. Numerical formulation in principal directions. , 1990 .

[33]  Stewart W. Taylor,et al.  Biofilm growth and the related changes in the physical properties of a porous medium: 1. Experimental investigation , 1990 .

[34]  J. Langlinais,et al.  Experimental Determination of Formation Damage Pore Blocking Mechanisms , 1988 .

[35]  Hans-Jörg Vogel,et al.  Morphological determination of pore connectivity as a function of pore size using serial sections , 1997 .

[36]  L. E. Scriven,et al.  Percolation and conduction on the 3D Voronoi and regular networks: a second case study in topological disorder , 1984 .

[37]  H. S. Fogler,et al.  DEVELOPMENT OF RADIAL MODELS FOR FORMATION DAMAGE IN POROUS MEDIA , 1991 .

[38]  Fred J. Molz,et al.  A numerical transport model for oxygen‐ and nitrate‐based respiration linked to substrate and nutrient availability in porous media , 1988 .

[39]  T. P. Clement,et al.  Macroscopic Models for Predicting Changes in Saturated Porous Media Properties Caused by Microbial Growth , 1996 .

[40]  Muhammad Sahimi,et al.  Computer simulation of particle transport processes in flow through porous media , 1991 .

[41]  P. Johnson,et al.  A framework for modeling microbial transport and dynamics in the subsurface , 1994 .

[42]  P. Baveye,et al.  COMMENTS ON "EXPERIMENTAL STUDY ON THE REDUCTION OF SOIL HYDRAULIC CONDUCTIVITY BY ENHANCED BIOMASS GROWTH" BY WU ET AL. , 1998 .