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Enhancing bacterial transport with saponins in saturated porous media for the bioaugmentation of groundwater: visual investigation and surface interactions

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Abstract

The success of bioaugmentation processes for the remediation of groundwater contamination relies on effective transport of the injected microorganisms in a subsurface environment. Biosurfactants potentially affect bacterial attachment and transport behavior in porous media. Although saponins as biosurfactants are abundant in nature, their influence on bacterial transport in groundwater systems remains unknown. In this research, tank visual-transport experiments, breakthrough curve monitoring, and surface property measurement were performed to evaluate the effects of saponins on the transport of Pseudomonas migulae AN-1 cells, which were used as a model bacterium in saturated sand. Results show that the 0.1% saponins could effectively facilitated the AN-1 secondary transport and the addition of saponins decreased the hydrophobicity of AN-1 and sand. The role of the promotion of saponins was more dominant than that of the inhibition of ions on AN-1 transport in a saturated porous medium when ions and saponins coexisted. The interactions between AN-1 and sand grains with saponins and ions were explained in accordance with the Derjaguin–Landau–Verwey–Overbeek theory.

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Acknowledgements

This study was funded by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant No. 41530636).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Key Laboratory of Groundwater Resources and Environment of the Ministry of Education, College of Environment and Resources, Jilin University, 2519 Jiefang Road, Changchun, 130021, People’s Republic of China

    Yongsheng Zhao, Dan Qu, Rui Zhou, Xinru Yang, Wenbo Kong & Hejun Ren

  2. Baohang Environment Company Limited, 13 Beiyuan Road 1st, Beijing, 100107, People’s Republic of China

    Dan Qu

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  1. Yongsheng Zhao
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  2. Dan Qu
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  3. Rui Zhou
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  4. Xinru Yang
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  5. Wenbo Kong
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  6. Hejun Ren
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Correspondence to Hejun Ren.

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This article does not contain any studies with human participants or animals performed by any of the authors.

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Responsible editor: Philippe Garrigues

Electronic supplementary material

Additional information including the calculation methods of mass recovery (MR) and deposition rate coefficient (Kc), DLVO interaction energy calculations, and the schematic diagrams of tank and column experiments, respectively.

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Zhao, Y., Qu, D., Zhou, R. et al. Enhancing bacterial transport with saponins in saturated porous media for the bioaugmentation of groundwater: visual investigation and surface interactions. Environ Sci Pollut Res 25, 26539–26549 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11356-018-2477-1

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11356-018-2477-1

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