ABSTRACT
This chapter describes the basic concepts of reaction kinetics and introduces two of the widely used equations that relate the growth and consumption rates of the biomass produced and the substrate consumed in biochemical reactions: the Michaelis–Menten equation and the Monod equation. An important concept in reaction kinetics is the time required to halve the concentration from an initial state, which is referred to as the half-life. Two of the widely used models for describing the kinetics of such reactions are the Michaelis–Menten equation and the Monod equation. The Michaelis–Menten equation, which describes the kinetics of many enzymes, provides a relationship between the rate of an enzyme-catalysed reaction and the concentration of the enzyme's substrate. Reaction kinetics relates the rate of concentration variation in a chemical or biological reaction. The mechanism of the reaction is dependent on the order of the reaction, which may be zero-, first-, or second-order. Higher orders are rarely used to describe chemical reactions.
