Measurement of bacterial oxygen uptake kinetics by a modified respirometric technique

The need to predict and control the oxygen demand in a fermentor has led to a desire for a better understanding of the ways in which bacterial cells respond to changing oxygen concentration in the nutrient medium. As part of a study of oxygen transfer to bacterial suspensions, the authors have developed a method of measuring the respiration kinetics of growing microbial cells under well-defined conditions, with oxygen supply as the only limitation to growth, and the method yields unambiguous results even at DO concentrations below 0.1 mg/L.