CRC Press Transport of multiple Escherichia coli strains in saturated porous media: UNESCO-IHE PhD Thesis

Prediction of microbial transport distances are usually based on the sticking efficiency, a parameter in the classical colloid filtration theory. This parameter represents the interaction between colloid and collector surfaces resulting in deposition. According to the theory, the sticking efficiency is invariable when physico-chemical characteristics of aquifer media are homogeneous. However, many research results have indicated variations within bacterial strains. In this research, the transport of Escherichia Coli in saturated quartz columns were conducted in the laboratory. The objectives were to characterise the distribution of sticking efficiency, measure low sticking efficiency values of cells, and to develop a methodology to measure minimum values of sticking efficiencies within bacterial sub-populations. Also, the work assesses the contribution of phenotypic and genotypic characteristics of Escherichia coli on their attachment to quartz grains. About the Author George Lutterodt was born at Osu in Accra, Ghana. He graduated from the University of Ghana and the Royal Institute of Technology (KTH) in Stockholm, Sweden with a BSc in Geology and an MSc in Environmental Engineering and Sustainable Infrastructure, respectively, in 1998 and 2004. Between the period 2005 and 2006, he worked with Nii Consult, a Water Resources and Environmental Management Consultancy, and also with Geogroup Limited-a mining and hydrogeological consultancy firm as a Field Hydrogeologist. Prior to his post-graduate studies and during the period 1998-1999 he worked in the Groundwater Division of the Water Research Institute of the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research in Ghana as a National Service Person. Between the years 2000 to 2005 he was employed as an Assistant Geologist at the Ghana Geological Survey Department, he also took a teaching job at the Ghanata Secondary School in Dodowa, Accra and taught High School physics and mathematics from 2000-2002. From January 2007 to May 2011, he studied in Delft for his PhD research.