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A high containment polymodal pilot‐plant fermenter—design concepts
Author(s) -
Hambleton Peter,
Griffiths J. Bryan,
Cameron D. Ross,
Melling Jack
Publication year - 1991
Publication title -
journal of chemical technology and biotechnology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.64
H-Index - 117
eISSN - 1097-4660
pISSN - 0268-2575
DOI - 10.1002/jctb.280500204
Subject(s) - containment (computer programming) , industrial fermentation , bioreactor , piping , waste management , pilot plant , process engineering , environmental science , flexibility (engineering) , biochemical engineering , engineering , environmental engineering , computer science , chemistry , fermentation , statistics , food science , mathematics , organic chemistry , programming language
A 225 dm 3 pilot‐plant bioreactor system has been designed and constructed that is suitable for biohazardous fermentations. The design enables operation at containment levels above the requirements of good industrial large‐scale practice (GILSP) without secondary containment of the whole plant. The main biosafety features of the systems include the use of steam barriers on O‐ring seals, supply lines and stirrer seals, multiple O‐ring seals, piping of condensate lines and pressure relief systems to a ‘kill tank’, double filtration of inlet and off gases and a mobile isolation unit that allows localised containment of sample valve and probe entry ports. The fermenter can, with minor modifications, be operated as a bottom‐ or top‐stirred reactor for the culture of microbial or animal cells, or as an airlift reactor. The design offers considerable flexibility that could prove cost‐effective for process development and production. The relevance of the various design features to enable bioreactor operations at pilot‐plant scale to be carried out in compliance with current guidelines for large‐scale culture of recombinant microorganisms and microbial pathogens is discussed.