About Transgressive Over-Yielding in the Chemostat

TL;DR

This paper demonstrates that in a parallel chemostat system, introducing different species in each tank can enhance overall yield through a phenomenon called transgressive over-yielding, highlighting the benefits of spatial heterogeneity.

Contribution

It reveals how spatial configuration and species diversity in parallel chemostats can lead to increased yields, a novel insight into bioreactor design.

Findings

Different species in each chemostat improve total yield

Transgressive over-yielding occurs due to spatial heterogeneity

Spatialization can optimize bioprocess efficiency

Abstract

We show that for certain configurations of two chemostats fed in parallel, the presence of two different species in each tank can improve the yield of the whole process, compared to the same configuration having the same species in each volume. This leads to a (so-called) "transgressive over-yielding" due to spatialization.