Abstract

The biodegradation kinetics of BTEX (benzene, toluene, ethylbenzene and xylene isomers) compounds were studied individually and as mixtures by using models with different levels of sophistication. In order to evaluate the performances of the unstructured models we used experimental data from literature. The system description was based on the material balances of key components for batch uncompetitive inhibitions were applied along with the sum kinetics with interaction parameters models. The kinetic parameters were estimated via a global search method known as Particle Swarm Optimization (PSO). Successfully described by applying a SKIP model, with the main advantage being the consideration of the substrate interactions.