Rhodospirillum rubrum was grown continuously and photoheterotrophically under light limitation using a cylindrical photobioreactor in which the steady state biomass concentration was varied between 0.4 to 4 kg m(-3) at a constant radiant incident flux of 100 W m(-2). Kinetic and stoichiometric models for the growth are proposed. The biomass productivities, acetate consumption rate and the CO2 production rate can be quantitatively predicted to a high level of accuracy by the proposed model calculations.