Evaluation of the effectiveness factor for a multiple species biofi

Abstract

An existing dynamic biofilm multiple species computer simulation (Wanner & Gujer, 1986) is used to model both heterotrophic carbon‐oxidizing and autotrophic nitrogen‐oxidizing bacterial populations within an accumulating biofilm, a system characteristic of the biological nitrification treatment of domestic waste‐waters. Such simulation predicts spatial distributions of N‐number of microbial species metabolizing a possible M‐number of substrates in an expanding (or contracting) biofilm as a function of time. Here the effects of substrate mass transfer limitations and bacterial species distributions on the overall biofilm effectiveness factor, a heterogeneous reaction‐based concept commonly used to interpret the effects of mass transfer on immobilized biological processes, are assessed.