Department of Chemical and Petroleum Engineering, Schulich School of Engineering, University of Calgary, 2500 University Drive NW, Calgary, Alberta, T2N 1N4, Canada.
Biofouling. 2012;28(9):937-51. doi: 10.1080/08927014.2012.723204.
Biofilm growth can impact the effectiveness of industrial processes that involve porous media. To better understand and characterize how biofilms develop and affect hydraulic properties in porous media, both spatial and temporal development of biofilms under flow conditions was investigated in a translucent porous medium by using Pseudomonas fluorescens HK44, a bacterial strain genetically engineered to luminesce in the presence of an induction agent. Real-time visualization of luminescent biofilm growth patterns under constant pressure conditions was captured using a CCD camera. Images obtained over 8 days revealed that variations in bioluminescence intensity could be correlated to biofilm cell density and hydraulic conductivity. These results were used to develop a real-time imaging method to study the dynamic behavior of biofilm evolution in a porous medium, thereby providing a new tool to investigate the impact of biological fouling in porous media under flow conditions.
生物膜的生长会影响涉及多孔介质的工业过程的有效性。为了更好地了解和描述生物膜在多孔介质中的发展方式以及如何影响水力性质，本研究使用荧光假单胞菌 HK44（一种在诱导剂存在下发光的基因工程细菌菌株）在半透明多孔介质中研究了在流动条件下生物膜的时空发展情况。使用 CCD 相机实时捕获恒压条件下发光生物膜生长模式的实时可视化。在 8 天的时间内获得的图像表明，生物发光强度的变化可以与生物膜细胞密度和水力传导率相关联。这些结果被用于开发一种实时成像方法来研究多孔介质中生物膜演化的动态行为，从而为研究流动条件下多孔介质中生物污垢的影响提供了一种新工具。
