  In this paper we study a Darcy-scale mathematical model for biofilm formation
in porous media. The pores in the core are divided into three phases: water,
oil, and biofilm. The water and oil flow are modeled by an extended version of
Darcy's law and the substrate is transported by diffusion and convection in the
water phase. Initially there is biofilm on the pore walls. The biofilm consumes
substrate for production of biomass and modifies the pore space which changes
the rock permeability. The model includes detachment of biomass due to water
flux and death of bacteria, and is implemented in MRST. We discuss the
capability of the numerical simulator to capture results from laboratory
experiments. We perform a novel sensitivity analysis based on sparse-grid
interpolation and multi-wavelet expansion to identify the critical model
parameters. Numerical experiments using diverse injection strategies are
performed to study the impact of different porosity-permeability relations in a
core saturated with water and oil.
