Use of sequential-batch fermentations to characterize the impact of mild hypothermic temperatures on the anaerobic stoichiometry and kinetics of Saccharomyces cerevisiae

This work presents a characterization of the stoichiometry and kinetics of anaerobic batch growth of Saccharomyces cerevisiae at cultivation temperatures between 12 and 30°C. To minimize the influence of the inoculum condition and ensure full adaptation to the cultivation temperature, the experiments were carried out in sequencing batch reactors. It was observed that the growth rate obtained in the first batch performed after each temperature shift was 10-30% different compared with the subsequent batches at the same temperature, which were much more reproducible. This indicates that the sequencing batch approach provides accurate and reproducible growth rate data. Data reconciliation was applied to the measured time patterns of substrate, biomass, carbon dioxide and byproducts with the constraint that the elemental conservation relations were satisfied, allowing to obtain consistent best estimates of all uptake and secretion rates. Subsequently, it was attempted to obtain an appropriate model description of the temperature dependency of these rates. It was found that the Ratkowsky model provided a better description of the temperature dependency of growth, uptake and secretion rates than the Arrhenius law. Most interesting was to find that most of the biomass-specific rates have the same temperature dependency, leading to a near temperature independent batch stoichiometry.