ABSTRACT
Growth kinetics, a set of mathematical models and analyses, is used to design microbial growth and productivity experiments, predict their outcomes, and interpret the results. The central concept in growth kinetics is the “specific growth rate,” defined as the rate of increase of cell mass per unit cell mass. One can make an analogy to economics, in which specific growth rate is interest rate and cell mass is capital. The maximum specific growth rate is attained when all of the nutrients required for growth are available in excess thus allowing the biomass of the population to grow exponentially as the algal cells replicate at the fastest rate of replication that the organism can achieve, within the physical and chemical environment in which it is cultivated (e.g., pH, temperature, salts).
