Highly heterogeneous interior structure of biofilm wastewater for enhanced pollutant removals

Xianyang Li; Xiaodong Wang; Duu-Jong Lee; Wei-Mon Yan

doi:10.1016/j.biortech.2019.121919

Highly heterogeneous interior structure of biofilm wastewater for enhanced pollutant removals

Bioresour Technol. 2019 Nov:291:121919. doi: 10.1016/j.biortech.2019.121919. Epub 2019 Jul 27.

Authors

Xianyang Li¹, Xiaodong Wang¹, Duu-Jong Lee², Wei-Mon Yan³

Affiliations

¹ Research Center of Engineering Thermophysics, North China Electric Power University, Beijing 102206, China; School of Energy Power and Mechanical Engineering, North China Electric Power University, Beijing 102206, China.
² Department of Chemical Engineering, National Taiwan University, Taipei 10617, Taiwan; Department of Chemical Engineering, National Taiwan University of Science and Technology, National Taiwan University of Science and Technology, Taipei 10607, Taiwan; College of Engineering, Tunghai University, Taichung 40704, Taiwan.
³ Department of Energy and Refrigerating Air-Conditioning Engineering, National Taipei University of Technology, Taipei 10608, Taiwan.

PMID: 31376667
DOI: 10.1016/j.biortech.2019.121919

Abstract

Biofilm processes are widely used in wastewater treatment. The biofilm has highly heterogeneous interior structure, which can significantly affect the transport processes and the biological reactions over the biofilm. This study for the first time detailed the complicated velocity and concentration fields of substrate in a real biofilm structure. With a real biofilm interior being profiled and meshed to numerical solutions, the flow-through mode has significant distortion of inflow velocity fields and concentration distributions, which lead to enhanced biological reactions at regimes nearby major pores. Conversely, the crossflow mode depends weakly on the biofilm interior structure. The uniform biofilm model fails to describe the real biofilm processes. Future research needs based on real biofilm structures were discussed.

Keywords: Convection; Diffusion; Interior structure; Multiple staining; Performance.

MeSH terms

Biofilms
Biological Transport
Environmental Pollutants*
Wastewater*

Substances

Environmental Pollutants
Waste Water