Modeling facilitated contaminant transport by mobile bacteria

Introduction of exogenous biocolloids such as genetically engineered bacteria in a bioremediation operation can enhance the transport of contaminants in groundwater by reducing the retardation effects. Because of their colloidal size and favorable surface conditions, bacteria are efficient contaminant carriers. In cases where contaminants have a low mobility in porous media because of their high partition with solid matrix, facilitated contaminant transport by mobile bacteria can create high contaminant fluxes. When metabolically active mobile bacteria are present in a subsurface environment, the system can be treated as consisting of three phases: water phase, bacterial phase, and stationary solid matrix phase. In this work a mathematical model based on mass balance equations is developed to describe the facilitated transport and fate of a contaminant and bacteria in a porous medium. Bacterial partition between the bulk solution and the stationary solid matrix and contaminant partition among three phases are represented by expressions in terms of measurable quantities. Solutions were obtained to provide estimates of contaminant and bacterial concentrations. A dimensional analysis of the transport model was utilized to estimate model parameters from the experimental data and to assess the effect of several parameters on model behavior. The model results matched favorably with experimental data of Jenkins and Lion (1993). The presence of mobile bacteria enhances the contaminant transport. However, bacterial consumption of the contaminant, which serves as a bacterial nutrient, can attenuate the contaminant mobility. The work presented in this paper is the first three-phase model to include the effects of substrate metabolism on the fate of groundwater contaminants.