African Journal of Biotechnology Vol. 5 (4), pp. 305-317, 16 February 2006   

ISSN 1684–5315 © 2006 Academic Journals

Review

Microbial growth and substrate utilization kinetics

G.C. Okpokwasili^1* and C.O. Nweke²

¹Department of Microbiology, University of Port Harcourt, P.M.B.5323, Port Harcourt, Nigeria

²Department of Microbiology, Federal University of Technology, P.M.B. 1526, Owerri, Nigeria.

*Correspondence author.  E-mail: gidsilman@yahoo.com.  Tel: 0803 716 3622.

Accepted 29 November, 2005  

Microbial growth on and utilization of environmental contaminants as substrates have been studied by many researchers. Most times, substrate utilization results in removal of chemical contaminant, increase in microbial biomass and subsequent biodegradation of the contaminant. These are all aimed at detoxification of the environmental pollutants. Several microbial growth and biodegradation kinetic models have been developed, proposed and used in bioremediation schemes. Some of these models include Monod’s, Andrews, Bungay’s weighted model, general substrate inhibition models (GSIM) and sum kinetic models. Most research on microbial potentials to degrade chemical pollutants has been performed on a laboratory scale. There is a need to extend such studies to pilot scale as well as to full-scale field applications.

Key words: Microbial growth, substrate utilization, biodegradation, kinetics, detoxification, organic contaminants, models, environmental pollutants.