SummaryThe growth of a mixed methane-utilizing culture in a continuous flow fermenter has been studied under both methane and oxygen limitation. Small additions of methanol have been shown to inhibit the methane-utilizing moiety in the culture and it has been shown that the Hyphomicrobium sp. in the mixed culture removes any inhibitory methanol. The interaction between the methane-utilizing Pseudomonas sp., and the Hyphomicrobium sp. has been explained and a model of the continuous mixed culture under oxygen limitation has been formulated. Qualitative predictions of transient phenomena by the model have been verified experimentally.

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ABSTRACT. Pure cultures of Hyphomicrobium sp. had a high affinity for methanol (Km= 8·33 × 10−6 M) and the maximum respiration rate was c. 5 times higher than that of a mixed culture in which a methane‐utilizing pseudomonad predominated (Km= 2·94 × 10−2 M). From a comparison of the substrate affinities, a culture of the methane‐utilizing organism would be expected to produce levels of methanol high enough to inhibit methane oxidation and the Hyphomicrobium sp. would be able to scavenge this methanol.

SummaryThe effects of wall growth are described for a mixed methane-utilizing bacterial population growing in both batch and continuous culture. These effects are similar to those predicted previously by a theoretical analysis (Topiwala and Hamer, 1971).