A Theoretical Study of the Thermodynamics of Microbial Growth Using Saccharomyces cerevisiae and a Different Free Energy Equation

Abstract

Microbial growth is a biological process that has been previously treated as a chemical reaction operating in accord with the Gibbs free energy equation, Delta G = Delta H-T Delta S. The heat of yeast growth was the first to be measured, in 1856, by direct calorimetry of a large wine vat. Until then there was a tendency for biologists to continue with the old notion that the energy change accompanying the growth of microorganisms was reflected in the amount of heat that was produced during this process. The application of chemical thermodynamics to systems involving microbial growth did not occur until much later. The full application of the Gibbs equation to microbial growth did not take place until the experimental measurement of yeast cell entropy was made in 1997 Further investigations then showed that the quantity of thermal energy for solid substances represented by TS was twice that of the quantity of thermal energy represented by Qab that is experimentally necessary to raise T of a substance from 0/K to T/K. Since there can only be one value for this, the use of the equation Delta X = Delta H-Delta Qab was investigated with respect to microbial growth, and is described in this review.