The Simplest Stirred Tank Bioreactor

Stirred tanks are the most popular bioreactor configuration used in the Biotechnology Industry. And yet, there are some reports indicating that mammalian and plant cells cultured in stirred tank bioreactors could be lethally or sub-lethally damaged by shear stresses and bubbling. We analyzed the performance of a simple stirred tank bioreactor design based on the idea of agitation using an eccentrically located low shear disc impeller.

Tracer experiments using fluorescent tracers, CFD simulations, mass transfer coefficient estimations (kLa) and bacterial (recombinant Escherichia coli), plant (NT1 cells) and mammalian cell cultures (CHO cells and stem cells) are conducted to evaluate mixing performance and culture adequacy of this novel design. Results are compared versus those obtained in classical concentric stirred tank configurations. Our results suggest that the proposed bioreactor configuration could be particularly useful several biotech/biomedical applications ranging from screening of conditions for production of biopharmaceuticals, stem cells expansion and large scale culture of plant cells.