Tutorial 2 CLL271

Please DO NOT plagiarise. Severe penalty for non-compliance.

Review
Cell growth kinetics, Fermentation, Chemostat

1. Consider a chemostat containing a bacteria-population, of cell concentration X(t), and a

substrate concentration density S(t) feeding the bacteria. The reactor is fed with substrate
concentration and flow rate F. To maintain a constant volume the inflow equals the outflow in
which bacteria and/or products are harvested. Define dilution rate D = F/V where V is the
volume of the chemostat. Yield coefficient, Y is also known.

A. Write down mass balances on substrate and cells.

B. Assuming sterile feed, steady state and Monod kinetics find X̅and S ̅ .
C. Find maximum specific growth rate cells can attain.
D. Find optimum dilution rate. (Hint: maximize cell productivity, DX̅ ).

2. Two chemostats of volumes V1 and V2 are in series. In addition to the inflow from the first
chemostat, the second chemostat is being fed by another inflow of cell concentration X2=0
(sterile feed), substrate concentration S2 and flow rate F2. Assume non-sterile feed to the first
chemostat, Monod kinetics throughout, and assume µ ≠ µ(X). Answer the following:

A. Write down mass balances on substrate concentration, cell concentration.

B. Assuming steady state, find X̅and S
̅ at the end of the second chemostat.
C. When do you think such a configuration can be useful?
3. In a chemostat operation, a certain fraction φ of flow F is recirculated into the reactor. The
recycle stream is bereft of the substrate (i.e. S=0) and contains a fraction C of the single pass
cell concentration. Assume Monod kinetics.

A. Write down mass balance equations for cell and substrate concentration.
B. Assuming steady state, find X̅and S̅ coming out.
C. How is this configuration useful? (Hint: find a relation between μ and D)

4. In most chemostat operations, the product is more important than cells. Use Luedeking–Piert
equation ( rP = (αμ+β)X ) for product formation and Monod Kinetics to find following. (Assume
that equal flowrates enter and leave the chemostat)

YX/S = 0.42 g/g  =  g/g So = 10 g/L

max = 0.8 h-1  =  g/g-h F = 15 L/h
Ks = 0.2 g/L YP/S = 0.8 g/g V = 500 L

A. Write down mass balance equation for substrate, cells, and product.
B. Assuming steady state and Monod kinetics find the steady-state concentration of S and X.
C. Find productivity (quantitatively) and optimum dilution rate (qualitatively). (Hint: maximize DP̅)
D. What value of flow rate will lead to washout of the reactor if the volume of the reactor is kept
constant?

5. Consider a chemostat with enzymes instead of cells. Assuming one substrate molecule gives
one molecule of product and total enzyme concentration is constant.

A. Write down mass balance equations for substrate and product.

B. Assuming steady state and Michaelis Menten kinetics, find dilution coefficient as a function of
feed substrate concentration S0 and fraction of substrate converted δ.
6. For a certain type of cells, they can convert 0.7 (wt/wt) of substrate carbon (alkane or
glucose) to biomass.

Find yield coefficients YX/S (g dry weight cell/g substrate), YX/O2 (g dw cell/g O2) for both
reactions.

7.(a)Yeast cells grow in the exponential phase. The cell mass concentrations are given in
the below table. Calculate the specific growth rate, μmax

Time (hour) Cell concentration, Cx (kg dry cell m-3 medium)

0 0.6
5 1.308
10 2.855
15 6.23
20 13.6
25 29.64

(b) Yeast cells grew from 19 to 54 kg dry cells m-3 in 7 hours. During this period 81 g of glycerol
was consumed per 1L of the fermentation broth. Determine the average specific growth rate
and the cell yield with respect to glycerol.