Influence of shear stress, organic loading rates and HRT on the biofilm structure and on the competition between different biological aggregate morphotypes

International audienceThis study aimed at understanding how growth conditions influence the biofilm structural properties and the competition between microbial aggregates (biofilms, streamers, suspended biomass). The biological aggregates were developed during more than one month under contrasted conditions in terms of shear stress, hydraulic retention time (HRT), apparent surface organic loading rate (SOLR) and COD/N ratio (fourteen conditions). At high HRT (absence of streamers) an increase of shear stress led to a decrease of the average biofilm thickness whereas it increased with the apparent SOLR. In addition, biofilm density increased with shear stress and with the apparent SOLR at high shear stress. The presence of streamers was observed only at low HRT (< 3h). This presence has been attributed to the residual concentration in the bulk and to the hydrodynamic conditions of growth. Turbulent conditions and low substrate concentration considerably favor the development of streamers which benefit from a higher external mass transfer compared to biofilms due to their flapping movement. In some 2 conditions, the mass of streamers in the reactor were close to the biofilm one's, highlighting the necessity to consider such morphotypes in further studies since they can have a significant impact on the global microbial activity