A new thermodynamically based correlation of chemotrophic biomass yields

Abstract

A new, generally applicable, thermodynamically based method is proposed to provide an estimation of the biomass yield on arbitrary organic and inorganic substrates. Aerobic, anaerobic, denitrifying growth systems with and without reversed electrontransport are covered. The biomass yield can be estimated with only 15% error in a very wide range of microbial growth systems and biomass yields (0.01-0.80 C-mol/(C)-mol). This method is based on the use of 'Gibbs energy dissipated per C-mol produced biomass' (designated as Ds01/rAx) as the central parameter. Moreover the insufficiency of other methods based on YATP, YAve, eta o, YC and enthalpy or Gibbs energy efficiencies is shortly discussed. Also it appeared to be possible to understand the obtained correlation of Ds01/rAx in general biochemical terms.