Development and evaluation of an experimental protocol for 3-D visualization and characterization of the structure of bacterial biofilms in porous media using laboratory X-ray tomography

Abstract

The development of a reliable model allowing accurate predictions of biofilm growth in porous media relies on a good knowledge of the temporal evolution of biofilm structure within the porous network. Since little is known about the real 3-D structure of biofilms in porous media, this work was aimed at developing a new experimental protocol to visualize the 3-D microstructure of the inside of a porous medium using laboratory X-ray microtomography. A reliable and reproducible methodology is proposed for (1) growing a biofilm inside a porous medium, and (2) X-ray tomography-based characterization of the temporal development of the biofilm at the inlet of the biofilter. The statistical analysis proposed here also validates the results presented in the literature based on a biofilm structure single measurement.

Keywords:

• Biofilter
• biofilm
• X-ray tomography
• Pseudomonas putida

Acknowledgements

The authors gratefully acknowledge Erwann Vince for technical help and support. This work benefited from the technical microbiology facilities of the MOME platform located at LTHE UMR 5564, Grenoble, France.