Regular articleMetabolic kinetic model for dibenzothiophene desulfurization through 4S pathway using intracellular compound concentrations

•A metabolic kinetic model of the 4S route for P. putida CECT5279 in resting cells is proposed.•The evolution of the concentration NADH and ATP is used to describe the kinetics of the process.•The kinetic model describes correctly the process in a wide range of conditions.

Dibenzothiophene desulfurization with Pseudomonas putida CECT5279 in resting cells has been studied. A rational evolution of the kinetic modeling of the 4S desulfurization route is presented based on the recent advances in the knowledge of this bioprocess. Taking into account the influence of some intracellular compounds in the kinetics of the reactions involved in the 4S route, in particular ATP and NADH, a new kinetic model including this information has been formulated. The resulting kinetic model is able to satisfactorily predict the evolution of the 4S route compounds in a wide range of conditions that previous models were unable to describe correctly. These wide conditions include the use of cells of a single age and the mixture of cells of different ages. The model is able to describe process evolution when acetic acid is used as co-substrate, both in batch and fed-batch operations.