Driving factors for bioclogging of pores and porous media

Abstract

Understanding the interplay between hydrodynamics and biogeochemical processes is of growing importance in environmental applications and studies, especially in the fields of bioremediation and ecology. The majority of the microbial communities living in soil have a surface-attached lifestyle, allowing them to form biofilms. The biofilm growth influences pore geometries by clogging them and thus redirecting the flow, which in return affects biofilm development and local mass transport. After initially clogging single pores, the biofilm structure expands to larger clusters before eventually clogging the porous medium entirely. We study these processes with a soil-born microorganism, Bacillus subtilis, in microfluidic devices mimicking porous media to get a mechanistic understanding of the driving factors of bioclogging of porous media on different scales.