CRITICAL-STUDY OF THE USE OF PSEUDOMONAS-FLUORESCENS P17 TO DETERMINE ASSIMILABLE ORGANIC-CARBON (AOC)

Assimilable organic carbon (AOC) is almost the only limiting factor for bacterial growth in water, and the main factor responsible for bacterial proliferation and related water quality deterioration. In distribution mains Pseudomonas fluorescens strain P17 is used as standard in a reproducible test for the determination of AOC in water. In order to establish the standard conditions for the use of this microorganism, a series of experiments was performed to determine growth yield in different conditions. These results indicate that the kinetics of the growth of P17 depends on several factors, which complicates its use in a standard method for AOC determination.