MASS TRANSFER-REACTION COUPLING PRODUCES MULTIPLE SUBSTRATE CONCENTRATIONS AT FLOC SURFACE: SUBSTRATE INHIBITED KINETICS

Simplistically, the whole cell can be modelled as a well mixed substrate sink, enveloped by a diffusive barrier (the cell membrane). In this communication we use this model in describing diffusion and reaction within a cell floe, subject to substrate inhibition. The cell floe is pictured as an array of well mixed environments between which substrate transfer occurs. When the observed rate of substrate uptake by the floe is equated to the substrate transport rate across the extra-floe stagnant liquid film, multiple interface concentrations are possible. Their number increases as intra-floe diffusion influences the observed reaction rate. More fundamentally, this is the first time that more than three steady states have been predicted using the particular graphical technique with substrate inhibited kinetics.