Post by p4b

Small scale can be too well mixed. That sounds like a strange problem, but it is one of the reasons scale-up can fail. In this example, a standard 3 L bioreactor mixes much faster than the 2000 L based on the Xcellerex target system. From a lab perspective, that looks clean and controlled. But biologically, it may miss the actual large-scale stress. At 2000 L, cells can spend more time in gradients: oxygen, nutrients, pH, metabolites, or other process-relevant conditions. If the small scale does not reproduce these limitations, it may answer the wrong question. This is what we work on at p4b. We use CFD to identify critical large-scale conditions first. Then we use our pDS inserts to reproduce selected target criteria in conventional lab-scale systems. In this case, the target is mixing time and gradient formation. The goal is not to build a perfect miniature of the production reactor. The goal is to create a realistic scale-down model where the biology can show whether the large-scale stress actually matters. Because scale-down should not only be smaller. It should be relevant. #bioprocessing #scaledown #CFD #bioreactors

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