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Some investigations concerning the entropy balances of microbial fermentations — primary and secondary metabolite production
Author(s) -
Bormann E.J.,
Grosse H. H.,
Menz J.
Publication year - 1988
Publication title -
journal of basic microbiology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.58
H-Index - 54
eISSN - 1521-4028
pISSN - 0233-111X
DOI - 10.1002/jobm.3620280907
Subject(s) - entropy production , fermentation , chemistry , entropy (arrow of time) , thermodynamics , biochemistry , physics
In order to check the usefulness of the resulting equations of a model concerning entropy balances of microbial fermentation processes apropriate experiments were analyzed. To take into account both primary and secondary metabolism data of previously carried out fermentations of the amino acid L‐lysine and the antibiotic nourseothricin respectively were used. The obtained results indicate the agreement of the calculated values with the supposed thermodynamic relations showing the expected decrease of entropy production to a minimum as well as the zero balance of the entropy variation. The course of entropy production during the phase of product formation gave rise to discuss this phenomenon from a more general viewpoint with respect to the role of secondary metabolites as a possible way to avoid “overheating” of cells or membranes although energy substrates are available in excess.