Biochemical reactions balanced growth

The operation of the system outlined in Fig. S.61 is analysed by taking material balances over the fermenter vessel. It is assumed that in this idealised case, there is no biochemical reaction or growth occurring in the separator, so that the substrate concentration S in the entering stream is the same as that in the clarified liquid effluent stream, in the recycle stream and in the exit biomass rich stream. The material balance then becomes ... 

The results obtained in Illustration 13.1 indicate that for the biochemical reaction of interest the biomass specific growth rate is essentially constant. This fact, in turn, implies that the parameter Kg in the Monod equation is sufficiently small that it can neglected over the large majority of the time that the biochemical transformation is taking place. Under these circumstances a mass balance for the microorganism leads to the following developments for circumstances when the volume of the growth medium remains constant ... 

By adopting a system approach, the book deals with a wide range of subjects normally covered in a number of separate courses— mass and energy balances, transport phenomena, chemical reaction engineering, mathematical modeling, and process control. Students are thus enabled to address problems concerning physical systems, chemical reactors, and biochemical processes (in which microbial growth and enzymes play key roles). 

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