Application of colloidal filtration theory to bacterial attachment in textile fibrous media

Abstract

A mechanism to remove Pseudomonas bacteria from contaminated water using textile fibrous media was proposed in this study. The attachment of Pseudomonas bacteria to nylon fibrous media was studied in a laboratory column experiment. A systematic study was carried out to investigate the attachment of bacteria to fibrous material as a function of media mass at a constant solution chemistry. The single-collector contact efficiency and collision efficiency from the interaction between bacteria and fibrous media were calculated applying a semi-empirical approach of clean-bed filtration theory. The experimental results indicate that removal efficiency increases with an increase in media mass up to a certain level. This is due to the change in single-collector contact efficiency and attachment/collision efficiency, as observed from experimental data regarding removal efficiency.

Keywords

• textile filter
• colloidal
• media mass
• removal efficiency
• single-collector contact efficiency
• collision efficiency