A bioreactor may refer to any device or system that supports a biologically active environment. In one case, a bioreactor is a vessel in which is carried out a chemical process which involves organisms or biochemically active substances derived from such organisms. This process can either be aerobic or anaerobic. These bioreactors are commonly cylindrical, ranging in size from some liter to cube meters,and are often made of stainless steel. Vessel can refer to any of the following: Objects Vessel (French vaissel, from a rare Latin vascellum, diminuitive of vas, vase, or urn), a word of somewhat wide application for many objects, the meaning common to them being capacity to hold or contain something. ... A chemical reaction is a process involving one, two or more substances (called reactants), characterized by a chemical change and yielding one or more product(s) which are different from the reactants. ... In biology and ecology, an organism (in Greek organon = instrument) is an assembly of organs that influence each other in such a way that they function as a more or less stable whole and have properties of life. ... Biochemistry is the chemistry of life, a bridge between biology and chemistry that studies how complex chemical reactions give rise to life. ... A chemical substance is any material substance used in or obtained by a process in chemistry: A chemical compound is a substance consisting of two or more chemical elements that are chemically combined in fixed proportions. ... Aerobic is an adjective that means requiring air (where air usually means oxygen). ... Anaerobic is a technical word which literally means without air. ... The old steel cable of a colliery winding tower Steel is a metal alloy whose major component is iron, with carbon being the primary alloying material. ...

A bioreactor may also refer to a device or system meant to grow cells or tissues in the context of cell culture. These devices are being developed for use in tissue engineering. Cells in culture, stained for keratin (red) and DNA (green) The cell is the structural and functional unit of all living organisms, sometimes called the building blocks of life. ... Biological tissue is a substance made up of cells that perform a similar function. ... Cells in culture, stained for keratin (red) and DNA (green) Cell culture is the term applied when growing cells in a synthetic environment. ... Tissue engineering can perhaps be best defined as the use of a combination of cells, engineering materials, and suitable biochemical factors to improve or replace biological functions in an effort to effect the advancement of medicine. ...

Bioreactor design

Bioreactor design is quite a complex engineering task. Under optimum conditions the microorganisms or cells are able to perform their desired function with great efficiency. The bioreactor's environmental conditions like gas (i.e., air, oxygen, nitrogen, carbon dioxide) flowrates, temperature, pH and dissolved oxygen levels, and agitation speed/circulation rate need to be closely monitored and controlled. General Name, Symbol, Number oxygen, O, 8 Chemical series nonmetals Group, Period, Block 16, 2, p Appearance colorless Atomic mass 15. ... General Name, Symbol, Number nitrogen, N, 7 Chemical series nonmetals Group, Period, Block 15, 2, p Appearance colorless Atomic mass 14. ... Carbon dioxide is an atmospheric gas composed of one carbon and two oxygen atoms. ... The title of this article begins with a capital letter, due to technical limitations of the MediaWiki software. ...

Most industrial bioreactor manufacturers use vessels, sensors, controllers, and a control system, networked together for their bioreactor system, see programmable logic controller (PLC). This article needs to be cleaned up to conform to a higher standard of quality. ... A controller is a person or device that exercises or attempts to exercise control or influence. ... A control system is a device or set of devices that manage the behavior of other devices. ... A programmable logic controller, PLC, or programmable controller is a small computer used for automation of real-world processes, such as control of machinery on factory assembly lines. ...

Fouling can harm the overall sterility and efficiency of the bioreactor, especially the heat exchangers. To avoid it the bioreactor must be easily cleanable and must be as smooth as possible (therefore the round shape). A heat exchanger is a device for transferring heat from one fluid to another, where the fluids are separated by a solid wall so that they never mix. ...

A heat exchanger is needed to maintain the bioprocess at a constant temperature. Biological fermentation is a major source of heat, therefore in most cases bioreactors need water refrigeration. They can be refrigerated with an external jacket or, for very large vessels, with internal coils. A heat exchanger is a device for transferring heat from one fluid to another, where the fluids are separated by a solid wall so that they never mix. ... Temperature is the physical property of a system which underlies the common notions of hot and cold; the material with the higher temperature is said to be hotter. ... Refrigeration (from the Latin frigus, frost) is generally the cooling of a body by the transfer of a portion of its heat away from it. ...

In an aerobic process, optimal oxygen transfer is perhaps the most difficult task to accomplish. Oxygen is poorly soluble in water -and even less in fermentation broths- and is relatively scarce in air (20.8%). Oxygen transfer is usually helped by agitation, that is also needed to mix nutrients and to keep the fermentation homogeneous. There are however limits to the speed of agitation, due both to high power consumption (which is proportional to the cube of the speed of the electric motor) and the damage to organisms due to excessive tip speed. General Name, Symbol, Number oxygen, O, 8 Chemical series nonmetals Group, Period, Block 16, 2, p Appearance colorless Atomic mass 15. ... Air is a name for the mixture of gases present in the Earths atmosphere. ... Agitation may have the following special meanings Agitation, an emotional state Agitation, putting into motion (by shaking or stirring) Agitation, a term from the lexicon of Communists: political activities aimed at urging people to do something This is a disambiguation page — a navigational aid which lists other pages that might...

Industrial bioreactors usually employ bacteria or other simple organisms that can withstand the forces of agitation. They are also simple to sustain, requiring only simple nutrient solutions and can grow at astounding rates. Phyla/Divisions Actinobacteria Aquificae Bacteroidetes/Chlorobi Chlamydiae/Verrucomicrobia Chloroflexi Chrysiogenetes Cyanobacteria Deferribacteres Deinococcus-Thermus Dictyoglomi Fibrobacteres/Acidobacteria Firmicutes Fusobacteria Gemmatimonadetes Nitrospirae Planctomycetes Proteobacteria Spirochaetes Thermodesulfobacteria Thermomicrobia Thermotogae Bacteria (singular, bacterium) are a major group of living organisms. ...

In bioreactors where the goal is grow cells or tissues for experimental or therapeutic purposes, the design is significantly different from industrial bioreactors. Many cells and tissues, especially mammalian, must have a surface or other structural support in order to grow, and agitated environments are often destructive to these cell types and tissues. Higher organisms also need more complex growth medium.

Synthetic Substrates & Microcarriers for Bioreactor Cell Culture

PuraMatrix Synthetic Peptide Cell Scaffolds

NASA Human Waste Reclamation Bioreactor

In 1998, NASA announced it had built it's own Human waste reclamation Bioreactor designed for the International Space Station and a Manned Mars Mission. Human Urine and Feces are input into one end of the reactor and pure Oxygen and pure water and compost soil are output from the other end. The soil can be used for growing vegetables. The Bioreactor also makes electricity at the same time. This Bioreactor was featured on Scientific American Frontiers with Alan Alda in 1999.?

NASA Tissue Cloning Bioreactor

Recently NASA announced another new type of Bioreactor that artificially grows tissue in Cell cultures.

NASA's Tissue Bioreactor can grow heart tissue, skeletal tissue, ligaments, cancer tissue for study, and other types of tissue. [1]

See also: septic tank, cell culture A septic tank is part of a small scale sewage treatment system often referred to as a septic system, which consists of the tank itself and a leach (drain) field. ... Cells in culture, stained for keratin (red) and DNA (green) Cell culture is the term applied when growing cells in a synthetic environment. ...