Biofilm Systems V : Selected Proceedings of Tbe 5th International Conference on Biofilm Systems, Held in Cape Town, SouthAfrica, 14-18September 2003

Biofilm processes find wide application in water and wastewater treatment. The complex interactions between microbial conversion, spatial organisation and mass transfer phenomena mean that biofilm processes have largely developed in an empirical manner. Nevertheless many successful applications of biofilm processes exist. More recently, rapid developments in experimental techniques (molecular microbiological methods and microscopy) as well as modelling techniques have expanded our insight into biofilm processes and structures greatly. Attempts are well underway to bridge the gap between highly advanced models and the need for simple model-based design and evaluation of treatment plants. Furthermore the highly promising area of aerobic granular sludge systems clearly has been making significant progress in the last few years. These proceedings comprise 49 papers, selected after full peer review, which address the following topics: aerobic granular sludge reactors; nutrient removal; biofilm modelling; miscellaneous biofilm reactors; drinking water biofilms; anaerobic biofilm processes; and biofilm structure. They constitute an unrivalled compilation of some of the very best work being done at the moment on the fundamentals and the applications of biofilms in water and wastewater treatment.