• Journal of the Korean Society of Groundwater Environment
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• v.2 no.1
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• pp.22-29
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• 1995

Mobile bacterial particles can act as carriers and enhance the transport of hydrophobic contaminants in ground water by reducing retardation effects. Because of their colloidal size and favorable surface conditions, bacteria can act as efficient contaminant carriers. When such carriers exist in a porous medium, the system can be thought of as three phases: an aqueous phase, a carrier phase, and a stationary solid matrix phase. Contaminant can be present in either or all of these phases. In this study, a mathematical model based on mass balances is developed to describe the transport and fate of biodegradable contaminant in a porous medium. Bacterial mass transfer mechanism between aqueous and solid matrix phases, and contaminant mass transfer between aqueous and bacterial phases are represented by kinetic models. Governing equations are non-dimensionalized and solved to analyze the bacteria facilitated contaminant transport. The numerical results of the facilitation effect match favorably with experimental data reported in the literature. Results show that the contaminant transport can be described by local equilibrium assumption when Damkohler numbers are larger than 10. Significant sensitivities to model parameters, particularly bacterial growth rate and influent bacterial concentration, were discovered.