Pore-scale modeling of competition and cooperation of multispecies biofilms for nutrients in changing environments

Mojtaba Aghajani Delavar, Junye Wang

Research output: Contribution to journalJournal Articlepeer-review

17 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

In this article, we developed a pore-scale model of integrated lattice Boltzmann method and cellular automata to investigate competitive growth of aerobic nitrite and ammonium oxidizers in a bioreactor. The results showed that inlet nutrient concentrations have significant effects on maximum biofilm concentration, ratio of microorganisms' concentrations, growth pattern, and time. The local availability of oxygen could control the competition, resulting in different growth patterns. The coexistence of ammonium and nitrite in same inlet zone increased not only the biofilm concentration (7%) but also the ratio of microorganisms' concentrations (36%). Although this coexistence decreased the total biofilm concentration in some cases, it increased the growth rate about 25%. Changes of the maximum biomass concentration could change biofilm concentration of about 40% and microorganisms' concentrations ratio of about 30%. This framework provides a powerful tool to improve our understanding of dynamic interdependency of many complex microbial consortia systems with environments.

Original languageEnglish
Article numbere16919
JournalAIChE Journal
Volume66
Issue number6
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 1 Jun. 2020

Keywords

  • ammonium oxidizer
  • biofilm competitive growth
  • cellular automata
  • lattice Boltzmann
  • nitrite oxidizer

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