Analysis of Biofilm Solid Interactions Underpinning Wastewater Treatment

Introduction

Wastewater treatment (WWT) processes that use biofilms as their biocatalyst have been in use for over 100 years. Over the past few decades, a greater understanding has emerged on how biofilms can be exploited for enhanced nutrient removal. This knowledge has been translated into new technologies representing about one-third of all WWT processes in a multibillion-euro global wastewater technology market.

Need for Enhanced Efficiencies

Despite the success of these technologies, there is a significant need for enhanced efficiencies in these processes. The development of new technologies that are more energy efficient and capable of better resource recovery from wastewater is essential.

To achieve this, there is a need for new mechanistic insight, particularly regarding the interaction between biofilms and particulate organic matter in the influent wastewater. The knowledge gap spans three key areas:

1. Non-oxidative interactions
2. Hydrolysis
3. Bioflocculation

Research Objectives

This research project will develop an enhanced multispecies biofilm model that better incorporates new understanding of these areas. We will go significantly beyond the current state of the art by first building an experimental platform that exploits recent developments in advanced imaging, nanosensors, and particle-tracking to probe the fundamentals of these mechanisms.

To achieve this, the platform will be uniquely based on fluorescently tagged monospecies biofilms, rather than on conventional multispecies biofilms in the first phase of the project. This work will then inform the development of new mathematical model relationships, which will be implemented in an extended multispecies model and validated against data from a pilot plant operating under conditions representative of a real WWT plant.

Expected Outcomes

The transformative approach in this project will lead to a more fundamental insight into the mechanisms underpinning particle-biofilm interactions. It will also pave the way for new applications of biofilms for advanced wastewater treatment.