QCM Viscometer for Bioremediation and Microbial Activity Monitoring

A quartz crystal microbalance has been used to monitor the polymer production of a bacterial population in liquid medium. The increasing amount of produced polymer corresponds to an increase in the viscosity of the liquid, which is directly measurable as the fluid contacts the surface of the quartz crystal in the sensor system. This procedure is being developed as a novel method for measuring microbial polymer production and growth of an environmental isolate obtained from river sediment contaminated with petroleum hydrocarbons. This measurement technique may be used to monitor growth characteristics of unknown anaerobic bacteria when used in conjunction with other currently employed microbiological test methods, such as spectrophotometry, to measure turbidity. In the presence of glucose, a novel, strictly anaerobic bacterial isolate, designated strain JEL-1, produces a viscous, as yet unidentified, polymer. In defined minimal media containing amino acids and glucose under a nitrogen gas atmosphere, copious quantities of this polymer are produced. This research investigates the corresponding increase in quantity of the polymer produced by JEL-1 as well as the polymer production rate in a controlled liquid medium.