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Pore‐scale modeling of competition and cooperation of multispecies biofilms for nutrients in changing environments
Author(s) -
Aghajani Delavar Mojtaba,
Wang Junye
Publication year - 2020
Publication title -
aiche journal
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.958
H-Index - 167
eISSN - 1547-5905
pISSN - 0001-1541
DOI - 10.1002/aic.16919
Subject(s) - biofilm , microorganism , ammonium , environmental chemistry , bioreactor , competition (biology) , chemistry , photobioreactor , growth rate , biomass (ecology) , nitrification , nitrite , environmental science , environmental engineering , ecology , nitrate , bacteria , biology , nitrogen , genetics , geometry , mathematics , organic chemistry
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.