Product Code Database
A bioreactor is any manufactured device or system that supports a biologically active environment. In one case, a bioreactor is a vessel in which a chemical process is carried out which involves or biochemistry active substances derived from such organisms. This process can either be Aerobic organism or anaerobic. These bioreactors are commonly cylindrical, ranging in size from litres to cubic metres, and are often made of stainless steel.
It may also refer to a device or system designed to grow cells or tissues in the context of cell culture. These devices are being developed for use in tissue engineering or biochemical/bioprocess engineering.
On the basis of mode of operation, a bioreactor may be classified as batch reactor, fed-batch or continuous (e.g. a continuous stirred-tank reactor model). An example of a continuous bioreactor is the chemostat.
Organisms or biochemically active substances growing in bioreactors may be submerged in liquid medium or may be anchored to the surface of a solid medium. Submerged cultures may be suspended or immobilized. Suspension bioreactors may support a wider variety of organisms, since special attachment surfaces are not needed, and can operate at a much larger scale than immobilized cultures. However, in a continuously operated process the organisms will be removed from the reactor with the effluent. Immobilization is a general term describing a wide variety of methods for cell or particle attachment or entrapment. It can be applied to basically all types of biocatalysis including enzymes, cellular organelles, animal and plant cells and organs. Immobilization is useful for continuously operated processes, since the organisms will not be removed with the reactor effluent, but is limited in scale because the microbes are only present on the surfaces of the vessel.
Large scale immobilized cell bioreactors are:
Fouling can harm the overall efficiency of the bioreactor, especially the . To avoid it, the bioreactor must be easily cleaned. Interior surfaces are typically made of stainless steel for easy cleaning and sanitation. Typically bioreactors are cleaned between batches, or are designed to reduce fouling as much as possible when operated continuously. Heat transfer is an important part of bioreactor design; small vessels can be cooled with a cooling jacket, but larger vessels may require coils or an external heat exchanger.
Scale-down bioreactors play an important rule in process development as they allow for parameters to be fine-tuned without substantial materials or consumables investments.
Many research groups have developed novel bioreactors for growing specialized tissues and cells on a structural scaffold, in attempt to recreate organ-like tissue structures in-vitro. Among these include tissue bioreactors that can grow heart tissue, skeletal muscle tissue, ligaments, cancer tissue models, and others. Currently, scaling production of these specialized bioreactors for industrial use remains challenging and is an active area of research.
For more information on artificial tissue culture, see tissue engineering.
Bioreactors are generally used in those industries which are concerned with food, beverages and pharmaceuticals. The emergence of biochemical engineering is of recent origin. Processing of biological materials using biological agents such as cells, enzymes or antibodies are the major pillars of biochemical engineering. Applications of biochemical engineering cover major fields of civilization such as agriculture, food and healthcare, resource recovery and fine chemicals.
Until now, the industries associated with biotechnology have lagged behind other industries in implementing control over the process and optimization strategies. A main drawback in biotechnological process control is the problem of measuring key physical and biochemical parameters.
The raw material can be of biological or non-biological origin. It is first converted to a more suitable form for processing. This is done in an upstream processing step which involves chemical hydrolysis, preparation of liquid medium, separation of particulate, air purification and many other preparatory operations.
After the upstream processing step, the resulting feed is transferred to one or more bioreaction stages. The biochemical reactors or bioreactors form the base of the bioreaction step. This step mainly consists of three operations, namely, production of biomass, metabolite biosynthesis and biotransformation.
Finally, the material produced in the bioreactor must be further processed in the downstream section to convert it into a more useful form. The downstream process mainly consists of physical separation operations which include solid liquid separation, adsorption, liquid-liquid extraction, distillation, drying etc.
Agitator – Used for the mixing of the contents of the reactor which keeps the cells in the perfect homogenous condition for better transport of nutrients and oxygen to the desired product(s).
Baffle – Used to break the vortex formation in the vessel, which is usually highly undesirable as it changes the center of gravity of the system and consumes additional power.
Sparger – In aerobic cultivation process, the purpose of the sparger is to supply adequate oxygen to the growing cells.
Jacket – The jacket provides the annular area for circulation of constant temperature of water which keeps the temperature of the bioreactor at a constant value.
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