Is Bioclogging a Significant Risk in Biological Barriers and Zones?

摘要

Clogging of biological barriers or zones has been largely studied under clogging-promoting lab-scale conditions, strongly different from in situ field-scale conditions. The impact of two relevant parameters—carbon source and bacterial inoculum composition—was investigated using lab-scale sand-filled columns. The clogging rate of columns operated under commonly used conditions, such as glucose as carbon source and a single-strain culture as inoculum, was investigated and compared with the clogging rate of columns operated under more realistic conditions, such as a pollutant as single carbon source and a bacterial consortium as inoculum. The addition of glucose induced clogging most rapidly in the column systems, especially in the presence of a bacterial consortium. When toluene was added as a pollutant and carbon source, clogging rates were at least 3 to 4 times lower.