RT Dissertation/Thesis
T1 Bioenergetics-based modelling of microbial ecosystems for biotechnological applications
A1 González Cabaleiro, Rebeca
A2 Universidade de Santiago de Compostela. Escola Técnica Superior de Enxeñaría. Departamento de Enxeñaría Química, 
K1 Bioenergetics
K1 Thermodynamics
K1 Microbial ecology
K1 Bioprocesses
K1 Anaerobic fermentation
AB The bioenergetics analysis and mathematical modelling of several bioprocesses with industrial interestaiming for waste materials recovery, is conducted in this Thesis. The objective is to mechanisticallyunderstand the physical limits of the processes together with the ecological interactions established intheir different microbial ecosystems. This new knowledge could lead towards an improvement of thebioprocesses control increasing their efficiency. Three mathematical models have been developed basedon bioenergetics and minimizing the empirical information necessary.Firstly, a novel metabolic energy-based model has been developed that accurately predicts theexperimentally observed changes in product spectrum with pH variations when glucose is fermented inacidogenic conditions. The results are mechanistically explained analysing, under different environmentalconditions, the impact that variable proton motive potential and active transport energy costs have interms of energy harvest over products yielding.Secondly, several bioenergetics analyses to investigate the potential reversibility of specific anaerobicpathways of interest (more reduced products yielding with higher energy density) have been developed.Thermodynamics of the different steps in biochemical pathways are analysed and combined withassumptions concerning kinetic and physiological constraints to evaluate if the pathways are potentiallyreversible by imposing changes in process conditions.And thirdly, a last model is presented based on the assumption that mixed cultures are composed byundefined species competing for the energetic resources available and limited by the fundamentaltrade-off between yield and rate of energy harvest per unit of substrate. In this model, the competitionbetween existing and non-experimentally reported microbial catabolic activities, is simulated. Successfulecological relations of competition or collaboration are predicted under the hypothesis of maximumenergy harvest rate and in line with experimental observations.
YR 2015
FD 2015-09-28
LK http://hdl.handle.net/10347/13616
UL http://hdl.handle.net/10347/13616
LA eng
DS Minerva
RD 22 abr 2026