Study on microbial depolymerization processes of xenobiotic polymers with mathematical modelling and numerical simulation

Microbial depolymerization processes of polyethylene glycol are studied using a model for general depolymerization processes. The model involves a degradation rate that is a product of a time factor and a molecular factor. An inverse problem is solved numerically to determine the time factor using weight distributions with respect to the molecular weight before and after cultivation of a microbial consortium. The time factor is the microbial population whose carbon source is the liberated monomers. An initial value problem is solved numerically to simulate the transition of the weight distribution and the microbial population.