A versatile micromodel technology to explore biofilm development in porous media flows.

Bacterial biofilms that grow in porous media are critical to ecosystem processes and applications ranging from soil bioremediation to bioreactors for treating wastewater or producing value-added products. However, understanding and engineering the complex phenomena that drive the development of biofilms in such systems remains a challenge. Here we present a novel micromodel technology to explore bacterial biofilm development in porous media flows.