Communications to the Editor

Yield Coefficients for Cell Mass and

Product Formation

J. Hong
Biochemical Engineering Program, School of Engineering, University of
California, lrvine, California 92717
Accepted for publication, March 1, 1988

Cell mass and product formation by microorganisms can and

be described quantitatively by yield coefficients expressed
as the mass of cells or product formed per unit mass of
substrate consumed, Yx/,and Yp/,for cells and product, re-
spectively. With the yield coefficients, the material bal- The substrate consumption is determined as:
ance equations for cells, substrate, and product can be
straightforwardly formulated. However, it is frequently ob-
served in the literature that the yield coefficients are mis-
used, resulting in incorrect contradictory material balance As can be seen from eqs. (4), ( 5 ) , and (6) the substrate
equations to the definition of yield coefficients. The objec- consumption or product formation rate is not independent
tive of this communication is to clarify this point. of the cell accumulation rate. This is due to the assumption
Let's consider the overall stoichiometric equation for

-
that the overall metabolic activity of microorganisms can
growth and production: be described by the single stoichiometry, eq. (1).
sS + nN + 00, X + pP + wH,O + eCO, (1) The following extended version of the mass balance equa-
tion are also used for certain cases of product formation:
where S, carbon source; N , nitrogen source; X , cell mass;
P, product and s, n, 0,p . w ,e are stoichiometric coeffi- dx
-dt= w (7)
cients. The theoretical yield coefficients can be determined
from the above stoichiometry with known chemical for-
mula for S, N , X and P. dp=
dt qpx
The cell mass yield coefficient and the product yield co-
efficient are
(9)
y = -Mx
xis SM, where m is the maintenance coefficient expressed as a sub-
strate demand to maintain cell viability per unit of cells per
and time, and qp is the specific rate of product formation.
These equations are formulated based upon the assumption
y = -PMP that the substrate consumption rate is determined from the
(3)
'Is sM, following three parallel reactions:
respectively, where M,, M p and M , are the molecular sIS + n , N + 0,0,--+ X + w,H,O + elC02 (10)
weights of cell mass, product, and carbon source. The
usual manner of calculating the yield coefficients is to
measure the mass of cells or product produced and sub- s,S -
for the cell growth, and
+ n 2 N + 0,0, P + w,H,O + e,C02 (11)
strate consumed. If the fermentation is carried out in a
constant volume batch fermentor, the mass balance equa-
tions are:
dx
-
S + n3N + 0302 -
for the product formation,
Maintenance + w,H,O + e3C02
(12)
= px (4)
dt for the maintenance.

Biotechnology and Bioengineering, Vol. 33, Pp. 506-507 (1989)

0 1989 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. CCC 0006-3592/89/040506-02$04.00
 The specific conversion rate of eq. (10) is p and that of
eq. (1 1) is qp. The specific conversion rate for the mainte-
nance is m. Since the formulation of eq. (9) is based upon
the parallel conversion stoichiometry equations, eqs. (lo),
(Il), and (12), the definitions of Yi/sand Y&, in eq. (9) are
absolutely different from those in eqs. (5) and (6). The cell
mass yield coefficient, Y:/s in eq. (9) is the cell mass pro-
duced per mass of substrate consumed only for the conver-
sion (10).
The product yield coefficient, Y i / sin eq. (9), is the product
formed per mass of substrate consumed only for the con-
version (1 I),
Therefore, if the cell mass and the product are formed
simultaneously for a growth associated product formation,
experimental determination of Y:,s and Yi/s is not straight-
forward. The fraction of carbon source consumed for
eq. (10) and that for eq. (11) should be known. Also the
fraction of carbon source consumed for cell maintenance
should be known. However, the experimental determina-
tion of these fractions is not an easy task, especially when
the cell mass and the product are formed simultaneously. If
the yield coefficients are determined in the usual manner
by measuring the mass of cells or product produced and
substrate consumed over some period of time, these yield
coefficients should not be used in eq. (9). If so, the sub-
strate consumption will be erroneously counted twice. To
evaluate Yi/sin eq. (9), it is frequently assumed in the litera-
ture that no substrate loss is associated with the product
formation, then Yd,s can be stoichiometrically set from
eq. (11). For example, in the case of ethanol production
from glucose, the theoretical yield of Yils is determined to
be 0.51 g of ethanol/g of glucose based upon the follow-
ing stoichiometry:
C6H& -+ 2C,H,OH + 2C0, (15)
Since ethanol is the major product during the alcoholic fer-
mentation by yeast, the above stoichiometry is a reason-
able approximation to a real one. However, if the product
is a minor component, in other words, the fermentation is
associated with production of other components, a simple
formulation of stoichiometry such as eq. (15) involves a
drastic assumption which should be validated experimen-
tally. In summary, the yield coefficients determined in the
usual manner by measuring the mass of cells or product
produced and substrate consumed should not be used in the
mass balance equations of the form, eqs. (7), (8), and (9).
The validity of the extended mass balance equation,
eq. (9), should be examined by checking whether the stoi-
chiometry involved in the product formation is a physically
reasonable representation of metabolic activity. If the stoi-
chiometry in the product formation can not be determined
accurately, the extended mass balance equation, eq. (9),
should not be used.
COMMUNICATIONS TO THE EDITOR 507