A cometabilic kinetics model incorporating enzyme inhbition, inactivation, and recovery: I. Model development,...

Cometabolic biodegradation prcesses are important for bioremediation of hazardous waste sites. However, these proceeses are not well understood and have not been modeled thoroughly. Traditional Michaelis-Menten kinetics models often are used, but toxic effects and bacterial responses to toxicity may cause changes in enzyme levels, rendering such models inappropriate. In this article, a conceptual and mathematical model of cometabolic enzyme kinetics i described. Model derivation is based on enzyme/growth-substrate/nongrowth-substrate interaction and incorporates enzyme inhibition (caused by the presence of a cometabolic compound), inactivation (resulting from toxicity of a cometabolic product), and recovery (associated with bacterial synthesis of new enbzyme in response to inactivation). The mathematical model consists of a system of two, nonlinear ordinary differential equations that can be solved implicitly using numerical methods, providing estimates of model parameters. Model analysis shows that growth substraate adn nongrowth substrate oxidation rates are related by a dimensionless constant. Reliability of tehy model solution prcedure is verifiedl by abnalyzing data ses, containing random error, from simulated experimentss with trichhloroethyylene (TCE) degradation by ammonia-oxidizing bacterialunder various conditions. Estimation of the recovery rate contant is deterimined to be sensitive to intial TCE concentration. Model assumptions are evaluated in a companion article using data from TCE degradation experiments with amoniaoxidizing bacteria. (c) 1995 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.