Survey of the Nutrient Utilization and Cell Growth Kinetic with Verhulst, Contois and Exponential Models for Penicillium brevicompactum ATCC 16024 in Batch Bioreactor

In the most cases of the practical fermentation processes with filamentous microorganisms, direct monitoring of the cell morphology and biomass distribution in the culture medium is not easy possible. Penicillium brevicompactum is one of the morphologically complex filamentous fungi with different structural forms. In this research, nutrient uptake and cell growth kinetics was investigated compare to Verhulst, Contois and Exponential models using batch submerged fermentation in a bench-scale stirred tank bioreactor. The compatibility of the experimental data fitted with Verhulst, Contois and Exponential models with the regression values as 0.85, 0.86 and 0.90, respectively. In the case of Verhulst, the maximum specific growth rate and maximum cell dry weight were determined as 0.06 h and 33.2 g. L , respectively. For Contois study, the 1 1 maximum specific growth rate and the half-saturation coefficient were obtained as 0.04 h and 0.31 g. L , 1 1 respectively. However, in Experimental model, the maximum specific growth rate was determined as 0.01 h . 1 Thus, although Verhulst and Contois are proper kinetic models to describe substrate utilization and cell growth behavior of Penicillium brevicompactum in submerged batch bioreactor culture, the Exponential model is a better kinetic model for this purpose.