The effects of input substrate concentration and dilution rate on mass transfer resistance in the operation of immobilized cell reactors were investigated using Rhodospirillum rubrum KS-301 immobilized by Ca alginate as reactor element and glucose as growth-limiting substrate. The kinetic parameters were obtained to estimate effectiveness factors. In the packed-bed reactor, internal mass transfer resistance was predominating although external resistance could not be neglected. The overall effectiveness factor was decreased with increase of dilution rate. In the continuous stirred-tank reactor, external resistance was nearly neglected and the overall effectiveness factor was not affected by dilution rate. In this experiment the overall effectiveness factors in PBR and CSTR were estimated to be 0.70 and 0.71 at D$_{i}$ = 0.2/h, R = 0.15 cm, and S$_{i}$ : 1.0g/L, respectively.