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Experiment 1 Bioreactor and Its Components

The bench-top fermenter consists of an agitator to mix cells, a baffle to prevent vortexes, and a sparger to supply oxygen. It also has a jacket to regulate temperature via circulating water and sensors to measure and control pH, dissolved oxygen, foam, and temperature. The fermenter provides sterile cultivation of microbial, plant, or animal cells under controlled environmental conditions.

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Dogra Shubham
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2K views

Experiment 1 Bioreactor and Its Components

The bench-top fermenter consists of an agitator to mix cells, a baffle to prevent vortexes, and a sparger to supply oxygen. It also has a jacket to regulate temperature via circulating water and sensors to measure and control pH, dissolved oxygen, foam, and temperature. The fermenter provides sterile cultivation of microbial, plant, or animal cells under controlled environmental conditions.

Uploaded by

Dogra Shubham
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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EXPERIMENT-1

Aim: Describe the various parts of the bench-top fermenter (bioreactor) along with their
respective functions.

Materials required: Bench-top fermenter.

Theory: A bioreactor can be described as a vessel with a provision of cell cultivation under
sterile condition & control of environmental conditions e.g., pH, Temperature, Dissolved
oxygen etc. It can be used for the cultivation of microbial plant or animal cells. Bioreactors
are of two types: anaerobic and aerobic. In anaerobic bioreactors, microorganisms grow and
produce products in the absence or near absence of oxygen, e.g. most fuel processes. In
contrast, in aerobic bioreactors, microorganisms consume oxygen to grow and/or make the
desired product, e.g., yeast, enzymes, amino acids, and antibiotics.

Bioreactor design: Based on capacity, large and small (bench-top) bioreactors are used. The
large bioreactors are of maximum 20 L capacity, which usually can be filled up to 16-17 L,
whereas small bioreactors usually used in labs have a maximum capacity of 5 L, which can
be filled up to 3.5 L (2/3rd of the total volume).

Figure: Schematic diagram of a fermenter showing its various components


A typical bioreactor consists of the following components:

Agitator: This facilitates the mixing of the contents of the reactor, which eventually keeps
the “cells” in the perfect homogenous condition for better transport of nutrients and oxygen
for adequate metabolism of the cell to the desired product.

The agitator can be top driven or bottom, which could be basically magnetic or mechanically
driven. The bottom driven magnetic /mechanical agitators are preferred as opposed to top
driven agitators as it saves adequate space on the top of the vessel for insertion of essential
probes (Temperature, pH, dissolved oxygen, foam, CO2 etc.) or inlet ports for acid, alkali,
foam, fresh media inlet /exit gases etc. However, mechanical driven bottom impellers need
high-quality mechanical seals to prevent leakage of the broth.

Baffle: The purpose of the baffle in the reactor is to break (prevent) the vortex formation in
the vessel, which is usually highly undesirable as it changes the centre of gravity of the
system and consumes additional power.

Sparger: In an aerobic cultivation process, the purpose of the sparger is to supply oxygen to
the growing cells. Bubbling of air through the sparger not only provides adequate oxygen to
the growing cells but also helps in the mixing of the reactor contents, thereby reducing the
power consumed to achieve a particular level of (mixing) homogeneity in the culture.

Jacket: The jacket provides the annular area for circulation of constant temperature water,
which keeps the temperature of the bioreactor at a constant value. The desired temperature of
the circulating water is maintained in a separate Chilled Water Circulator, which has the
provision for the maintenance of low/high temperature in a reservoir. The contact area of the
jacket provides an adequate heat transfer area wherein desired temperature water is constantly
circulated to maintain a particular temperature in the bioreactor.

Basic control systems for the operation of the bioreactor are as follows:

Temperature Measurement and control: The measurement of the temperature of the


bioreactor is done by a thermocouple or Pt -100 sensor, which essentially sends the signal to
the Temperature controller. The set point is entered in the controller, which then compares
the set point with the measured value. Depending on the error, either the heating or cooling
finger of the bioreactor is activated to slowly decrease the error and essentially bring the
measured temperature value close to the set point.
pH measurement and control: The measurement of pH in the bioreactor is done by the
autoclavable pH probe. The measured signal is compared with the set point in the controller
unit, which then activates the acid or alkali to bring the measured value close to the set point.

Dissolved oxygen controller: The dissolved oxygen in the bioreactor broth is measured by a
dissolved oxygen probe which basically generates some potential corresponding to the
dissolved oxygen diffused in the probe. In the event of low oxygen in the fermentation broth,
more oxygen can be purged in the bioreactor &/or stirrer speed can be increased to enhance
the bubbles beating, which essentially enhances the oxygen transfer area and net availability
of oxygen in the fermentation broth.

Foam control: The fermentation broth contains several organic compounds. The broth is
vigorously agitated to keep the cells in suspension and ensure efficient nutrient transfer from
the dissolved nutrients and oxygen. This invariably gives rise to a lot of foam. Control of the
foam must be done as soon as possible. For this purpose, a level probe is inserted in the
vessel and hung just above the medium level. When the foam touches the level probe on the
rising, it sends the signal to the controller to add the anti-foam agent into the vessel to lower
down the foam level.

Other components:

Tachometer: It is used to measure the agitator speed in RPM.

Rotameter: It is used to measure the volumetric gas flow rate in a closed tube.

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