Modelling of phenol biodegradation using mixed microbial cultures and variable initial conditions (original) (raw)

Phenol biodegradation using mixed microbial cultures was investigated in batch cultures with variable initial concentration of phenol (180-800 mg/L) and biomass (0.75-1.5 g/L). The experimental data show in particular how cell growth is still observed after phenol exhaustion. This fact made the use of a conventional Haldane model, for which specific growth rate µ = 0 when substrate S = 0, inadequate to describe biomass growth profiles. This was attributed to the effect of metabolic intermediates accumulation during phenol degradation that contributes to the mixed microbial population growth still after phenol removal. Consequently, a new Haldane-based model that explicitly integrates the kinetic of the major intermediate was designed, which showed its efficiency to simulate both phenol and biomass concentration evolution over a wide range of initial conditions.