Kinetic Modeling of cometabolic degradation of ethanethiol and phenol by Ralstonia eutropha

Abstract

Cometabolism, as a complex phenomenon in microbial world, is a special mechanism for transformation of many compounds of environmental and toxicological significance. Several models have been proposed to describe the cometabolic transformations of non-growth substrates in the absence or presence of growth substrates. In this study, a model was proposed to simulate the degradation kinetics of phenol and ethanethiol (ET) by a pure culture of Ralstonia eutropha, including the effects of cell growth, endogenous cell decay, loss of transformation activity, competitive inhibition between growth and non-growth substrates, and self-inhibition of non-growth substrate. The model parameters were determined independently and were then used for evaluating the applicability of the model by comparing experimental data with model predictions. The model successfully predicted ET transformation and phenol utilization for a wide range of concentrations of ET (0 ∼ 40 mg/L) and phenol (0 ∼ 100 mg/L).