Bioreactors for Suspended Cells

For aeration of stirred-tank reactors, different methods can be applied. Surface aeration supports low cell densities in small culture volumes (below 11). Bubble aeration has been regarded as detrimental, as cells may be damaged mainly due to foam formation. This problem arises mostly in serum-containing media and/or in lab-scale bioreactors and is less severe in serum- or protein-free media or on large scale. The detrimental effects of bubbles or foam formation can be overcome by 

For continuous perfusion of stirred-tank reactors, several techniques for cell and/or product retention have been developed [2, 110-112]. For cell retention. 

Appropriate design and layout of a bioreactor system for production scale are a key issue for the successful production of biopharmaceuticals. Here, techniques such as characterization of the reactors with respect to power input, mass transfer, and mixing are applied, often coupled with computational fluid dynamic simulations [34,113-119]. 

---