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Appl Environ Microbiol. 1985 August; 50(2): 460-467
Copyright © 1985, American Society for Microbiology. All Rights Reserved.

Growth Kinetics of Attached Iron-Oxidizing Bacteria

Paul L. Wichlacz^,* and Richard F. Unz

Graduate Program in Ecology and Department of Civil Engineering, Pennsylvania State University, University Park, Pennsylvania 16802

ABSTRACT

A model of growth and substrate utilization for ferrous-iron-oxidizing bacteria attached to the disks of a rotating biological contactor was developed and tested. The model describes attached bacterial growth as a saturation function in which the rate of substrate utilization is determined by a maximum substrate oxidation rate constant (P), a half-saturation constant (K_s), and the concentration of substrate within the rotating biological contactor (S₁). The maximum oxidation rate constant was proportional to flow rate, and the substrate concentration in the reactor varied with influent substrate concentration (S₀). The model allowed the prediction of metabolic constants and included terms for both constant and growth-rate-dependent maintenance energies. Estimates for metabolic constants of the attached population of acidophilic, chemolithotrophic, iron-oxidizing bacteria limited by ferrous iron were: maximum specific growth rate (µ_max), 1.14 h^–1; half-saturation constant (K_s) for ferrous iron, 54.9 mg/liter; constant maintenance energy coefficient (m₁), 0.154 h^–1; growth-rate-dependent maintenance energy coefficient (m'), 0.07 h^–1; maximum yield (Y_g), 0.063 mg of organic nitrogen per mg of Fe(II) oxidized.

^* Corresponding author.

Present address: Idaho National Engineering Laboratory, EG&G Idaho, Inc., P.O. Box 1625, Idaho Falls, ID 83415.