Effect of Particle Concentration and Pipe Materials on the Formation of Biofilms in Drinking Water Distribution Systems
1
College of Civil Engineering, Huaqiao University, 668 Jimei Road, Xiamen 361021, China
2
Key Laboratory of Yangtze River Water Environment, Ministry of Education, Tongji University, Siping Road, Shanghai 200092, China
*
Author to whom correspondence should be addressed.
Academic Editor: Richard C. Smardon
Water 2022, 14(2), 224; https://doi.org/10.3390/w14020224
Received: 19 November 2021
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Revised: 22 December 2021
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Accepted: 31 December 2021
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Published: 13 January 2022
(This article belongs to the Section Water Quality and Contamination)
Microorganism rebreeding and biofilm shedding enter the water body in the process of a drinking water distribution system (DWDS), which poses a threat to public health. Particles in water can gather pollutants as well as providing favorable growth conditions for bacteria. To date, there are a few studies which focus on the relationship between particles and biofilm formation. Therefore, the microbial diversity of biofilms in the different pipe materials and the effect on particle concentration on biofilm formation were investigated in this study. Experiments were carried out under a simulative DWDS (including iron (DI) and polyvinyl chloride (PVC) pipe). The results showed that the microbial diversity in biofilms followed this order: DI pipe > PVC pipe > DI pipe (upper). Moreover, the microbial biomass of biofilm and the fluorescence intensity of extracellular polymeric substances (EPS, produced by microorganisms) were the largest in the absence of particles. The amount of biofilm bacterial and the fluorescence intensity of EPS both showed first an increasing and then decreasing trend with particle concentration increasing. When particle concentration was relatively low, the absorption of particles and bacteria played a major role, however, with the increasing particle concentration, more stable particle–particle were formed and thus, EPS was easily extracted, resulting in the increase of fluorescence intensity of EPS.
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Keywords:
drinking water distribution system; particles; pipe materials; biofilm; extracellular polymeric substances
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MDPI and ACS Style
Zhao, Z.; Zhang, Y.; Wang, L.; Shi, W. Effect of Particle Concentration and Pipe Materials on the Formation of Biofilms in Drinking Water Distribution Systems. Water 2022, 14, 224. https://doi.org/10.3390/w14020224
AMA Style
Zhao Z, Zhang Y, Wang L, Shi W. Effect of Particle Concentration and Pipe Materials on the Formation of Biofilms in Drinking Water Distribution Systems. Water. 2022; 14(2):224. https://doi.org/10.3390/w14020224
Chicago/Turabian StyleZhao, Zhiling, Yongji Zhang, Lu Wang, and Wenhang Shi. 2022. "Effect of Particle Concentration and Pipe Materials on the Formation of Biofilms in Drinking Water Distribution Systems" Water 14, no. 2: 224. https://doi.org/10.3390/w14020224
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