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Competition Between Two Microbial Populations In A Sequencing Fed-Batch Reactor And Its Implications For Waste Treatment Applications, Sitaram Dikshitulu

Dissertations

Pure and simple competition between two microbial populations in a sequencing fed-batch reactor (SFBR) was studied both at the theoretical and experimental level. Competition occurred for a single chemical pollutant which could serve as the sole carbon and energy source for both competitors. A mathematical model describing the process under inhibitory kinetics (as is usually the case with hazardous and toxic substances) was derived and theoretically analyzed. The model predicts that the dynamics of a SFBR, and the kinetics of biodegradation, result in a complex set of operating regimes in which neither species, only one species, or both species survive …