Microcalorimetric studies of Klebsiella aerogenes grown in chemostat culture. 1 Glucose-limited cultures.

The heat evolved during the aerobic growth of cells of K. aerogenes in continuous culture in carbon-limiting medium has been measured with a flow-microcalorimeter. Problems associated with aeration, pump rates, temperature, etc, have been eliminated. The measured heat output depends on the time taken for the cells to reach the calorimeter from the chemostat, from such results the rate of heat production in the chemostat can be calculated. Although the measured power output is independent of the dilution rate, the specific power output increases with increasing dilution rate and attains a constant value at D greater than 0.65 h-1. The variation of the specific power output with dilution rate is compared with variation of the yield value with dilution rate and values for growth-rate dependent and growth-rate independent maintenance energies calculated.