Kinetics of continuous microbial culture : plug-flow, chemostat, turbidostat and fed-batch principles

The study of continuous flow culture has contributed much to our fundamental knowledge of the growth kinetics, structure and physiology of microorganisms. The continuous culture principle represents an “open” culture system, with plug flow culture and chemostat culture as two basic types; turbidostat culture and fed batch culture can be considered as elaborations on the chemostat principle. This chapter deals with the theory of these four continuous culture types and their basic equations are described. Applications of continuous flow culture in research and industry are indicated