Thermodynamic properties of microorganisms: determination and analysis of enthalpy, entropy, and Gibbs free energy of biomass, cells and colonies of 32 microorganism species

Abstract

Thermodynamic analysis is an important part of chemical engineering. However, its application in biotechnology has been hampered by lack of data on thermodynamic properties of microorganism biomass. In this paper, a review was made of methods for estimation of thermodynamic properties of biomass, including standard enthalpy of combustion hC⁰, enthalpy of formation hf⁰, entropy s⁰, and Gibbs free energy of formation gf⁰. These parameters were calculated on molar and mass specific basis for 32 microorganism species, including 14 bacteria, 7 yeast and 11 algae species. It was found that hf⁰, s⁰, gf⁰ are, respectively, similar for all the analyzed species, due to the fact that all living organisms have a common ancestor and thus a similar chemical composition. Furthermore, all the analyzed microorganisms have negative hf⁰, originating from partial oxidation of all other elements by oxygen and nitrogen. A brief review was given of microorganism endogenous and growth metabolic rates. Finally, based on the determined thermodynamic properties, entropy of individual E. coli and Pseudomonas cells were determined and entropy of a Pseudomonas colony during its lifespan was calculated and analyzed. Three periods can be distinguished in the existence of a microorganism colony: (a) accumulation period when cell number, mass and entropy increase, (b) steady state period when they are approximately constant, and (c) decumulation period when they decrease.