DIFFUSION-COEFFICIENTS OF PHENOL AND OXYGEN IN A BIOFILM OF PSEUDOMONAS-PUTIDA

A pure culture of Pseudomonas putida was grown ns a film on carbon par ticles in a differential fluidized bed biofilm reactor a new experimen tal system for the application of diffusion-reaction models. In the ac tive biofilm, effective diffusion coefficients of the essential substr ates-phenol and oxygen-were simultaneously calculated The multisubstra te biokinetic expression used in the model solution was derived by non linear regression analysis of the data of continuous system fermenter experiments. The determined biokinetic equations were utilized to solv e the diffusion-reaction model for effective diffusion coefficients in the active biofilm. The ratio of the evaluated effective diffusion co efficient through active biofilm to that of water varied between 17-44 % and 9-24% for phenol and oxygen, respectively for different biofilm densities. Results of the study showed a fair agreement with the liter ature at low biofilm densities.