PREDICTING AVERAGE BIOFILM DENSITY OF A FULLY ACTIVE SPHERICAL BIOPARTICLE

In this work, a model was proposed to evaluate average biofilm density of a spherical bioparticle in a fluidized bed system. The biofilm den sity was predicted for a definite biofilm thickness and substrate conc entration. A diffusion and reaction model was developed with a cell-de nsity dependent effective diffusion coefficient for maximum substrate consumption theory. This theory predicts the optimum average density o f a biofilm to yield maximum substrate consumption rate, which has bee n made and experimentally verified for the first time in literature wi th this study. A good correlation was observed between the model predi ction and experimental results for fully active and thin biofilms when compared to literature. Copyright (C) 1996 Elsevier Science B.V.