Product formation in the continuous culture of microbial populations grown on carbohydrates

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Abstract
Experimental studies of the growth of a natural microbial population on a synthetic liquid effluent containing sugar, sodium alginate, and nutrients showed that: (I) the concentration of substrates in the feed to an activated sludge process exerts a significant effect upon its effluent chemical oxygen demand (COD) and (ii) there is an optimum sludge age for achieving minimum effluent COD, given by the relationship: optimum growth rate ∝ (feed COD)0.5. These were explained by incorporating the concept of product formation into existing activated‐sludge theory, which showed that at sludge ages longer than optimum, effluent COD increased due to product formation; at shorter sludge ages, the effluent COD increased owing to an increased concentration of degradable substrates.