UC Riverside

Transient mass transfer in a diffusion-reaction biofilm with a moving boundary was investigated analytically. The analysis incorporates both the diffusion processes into the biofilm as well as the reaction processes that lead to the expansion of the system. For first and second order reaction terms, the biofilm synthesis as a function of time was presented. The temporal development of the biomass was found to be in very good agreement with numerical results. The effects of osmotic pressure and temperature were also investigated and it was found that osmotic pressure plays a significant role in first order reactions but the temperature dependence is primarily found in the reaction kinetics and does not significantly influence osmotic pressure effects.