Bioproducts bioreactor designs

Advancing the field of process engineering. Important generic goals for research include the development of separation processes for complex and fragile bioproducts the design of bioreactors for plant and mammalian tissue culture and the development of detailed, continuous control of process parameters by rapid, accurate, and noninvasive sensors and instruments. 

Several bioreactor designs are used to produce bioproducts, and include, but are not limited to batch reactors, fed-batch reactors, continuous cultivation reactors, plug flow reactors, recycle bioreactor systems, immobilized cell reactors, biofilm reactors, packed bed reactors, fluidized-bed reactors, and dialysis cultivation reactors (Williams 2002). These reactor types can contain either mixed or pure cultures, and can stimulate heterotrophic and/or phototrophic cellular functions depending on the specific reactor design. Additionally, these reactor schemes can be used to produce products directly, or to harvest biomass or other products for downstream processes. Due to the complex nature of bioreactors, particularly anaerobic digesters, the use of metagenomics is helpful to understand the physiology of such systems. 

The integration of new metagenomic data related to microbial diversity, and potential for new bioreactor designs based on ecological principles for mixed cultures of multispecies of microbes, represents the greatest potential for developing new bioprocesses and bioproducts for large-scale implementation and production (Shuler... 

Surface interactions play an important role in the ability of certain animal cells to grow and produce the desired bioproducts. An understanding of the dynamics of cell surface interactions in these "anchorage-dependent" cells (cells that function well only when attached to a surface) will be needed, for example, to improve the design of bioreactors for growing animal cells. 

Abstract In this chapter, membrane bioreactors are described from an economic point of view. Economic analysis is a crucial stage in plant design, project and control and also requires an evaluation of the research, development and commercialization of the products and bioproducts. Such an analysis is focused here on membrane bioreactors and reactors, also taking into account the separation units such as micro-, ultra- and nano-flltration units that might be used as a downstream process or as pretreatment steps. The most important rules and parameters are first introduced. Some examples of application and case studies are also reported. 

First, the advances in molecular biology will enable a much broader range of bioproducts, produced via fermentation by computer-designed cells and microorganisms, perfectly tuned to the continuously changing environment in large-scale bioreactors, with maximum carbon and energy conversion efficiencies. 

The apphcation of immobilized cells in industrial processes has attracted considerable attention during the past decades due to many advantages over traditional processes. This chapter provides a critical review on cell immobihza-tion technology, including the advantages and challenges of the immobilized cell system, the mechanism and applications of different immobilization techniques, various bioproducts obtainable from immobilized cell cultures, and, finally, the design and function of different types of bioreactors currently used for cell immobilization. 

---