Many chemical products are synthesized by biological mechanisms, in which living cells take in “reactants” as food, and emit “products.” A typical fermentation process involves at least two stages— in the first, cells multiply until the desired concentration of cell mass is reached, and in the second, the bulk of the product is synthesized. A cell is a complex living organism, not a single chemical compound. However, in modeling fermentation processes, it is sometimes useful to assign an empirical chemical formula to the cells. Here we will assume the cells, or the “biomass,” can be represented by the chemical formula C₄H₇O₂N. The “growth phase” of a fermentation process produces a broth that has a volume of 5000 L and contains 100 g/L of biomass.

A. If all of the nitrogen in the biomass comes from ammonia, what mass of ammonia was required to produce the biomass?

B. If all of the carbon in the biomass comes from glucose (C₆H₁₂O₆), what mass of glucose was required to produce the biomass?

C. If the ammonia from part A and the glucose from part B are added to a batch fermentation reactor, and are completely consumed forming biomass, how much by product is formed? Can you propose a balanced chemical reaction that represents the process?