The growth of an L-aminoacylase-producing bacterium, Pseudomonas sp. B
A2, was modelled by using a model based on a modification of the Monod
equation. The modelling was carried out by direct simultaneous integr
ation of the differential equations for cell growth and substrate cons
umption. The values of the kinetic parameters were evaluated by numeri
cal fitting of the experimental results obtained in different fermenta
tions at various substrate concentrations, under the optimal experimen
tal conditions. The variation of mu(max) with the operational temperat
ure was found to follow the Arrhenius relationship. The influence of t
he pH on the maximum growth rate could be predicted by using one of th
e equations used in enzyme kinetics. The good agreement between the ex
perimental and theoretical data (mean errors in the range 2-7.84%) sho
ws that the proposed unstructured model is adequate to describe the gr
owth of the bacterial strain. Copyright (C) 1996 Elsevier Science Ltd.