SECONDARY UTILIZATION OF TRACE ORGANICS BY BIOFILMS ON POROUS MEDIA.

This article describes the mechanism of secondary utilization in controlled biofilm reactors. Secondary utilization is the biodegradation of a secondary substrate, the metabolism of which is inconsequential to sustaining the cells. Experiments with five representative compounds demonstrated that secondary utilization can remove organic compounds from water, even when the input concentrations are low. Experimental and theoretical results showed that fractional removals are often increased as the input concentration is reduced.