Quantification of Bacterial Attachment-related Parameters in Porous Media

Transport of Escherichia coli ATCC 11105 through porous media was investigated in this study using two sets of column experiments to quantify the attachment-related parameters (sticking efficiency, attachment rate coefficient and filter factor). The first set of experiments was performed in quartz sand under different ionic strength conditions (1, 20, 100, 200 mM) while the second experiments were carried out in quartz sand mixed with metal oxyhydroxide-coated sand (0, 5, 10, 25%). The breakthrough curves of bacteria were obtained by monitoring effluent, and then bacterial mass recovery and attachment-related parameters were quantified from these curves. The first experiments showed that the mass recoveries were in the range of 13.3 to 64.7%, decreasing with increasing ionic strength. In the second experiments, the mass recoveries were in the range of 15.0 to 43.4%, decreasing with increasing coated sand content. The analysis indicated that the sticking efficiency, attachment rate coefficient and filter factor increased with increasing ionic strength and coated sand content. The value of filter factor in the first experiments ranged from 1.45 e-2 to 6.72 e-2 1/cm while in the second experiments it ranged from 2.78 e-2 to 6.32 e-2 1/cm. Our filter factor values are one order of magnitude lower than those from other studies. This discrepancy can be attributed to the size of sand used in the experiment. The analysis demonstrated that the travel distance of bacteria estimated using the filter factor can be varied greatly depending on the solution chemistry and charge heterogeneity of porous media.