A mathematical model for microbial growth is presented which combines
a Michaelis-Menten kinetics for oxygen and a substrate inhibition kine
tics of the Haldane-type of phenol. It is applied to flow calorimetric
experiments of the growth of Pseudomonas putida on phenol and other a
romatic compounds. The model describes features of the growth well and
makes unexpected predictions which have been experimentally verified
and compared with as yet unexplained observations from the literature.
Possible applications to batch and flow calorimetric investigations o
f microbial growth are discussed with respect to the critical evaluati
on of the chosen instrumental set-up.