What is a Packed Bed Bioreactor System?
Packed Bed Bioreactor (PBBR) systems have many advantages over microcarrier systems for adherent cell cultures in terms of cell attachment, medium replacement, and high cell density. In recent years PBB systems have therefore gained significant popularity for adherent cell cultures. PBBR systems have also served as excellent devices for perfusion cultures because they do not require an external and unreliable cell retaining device. The most well-known PBBR bioreactor systems are Eppendorf’s Celligen Plus and Pall’s iCellis. These systems all use similar PET non-woven PET fiber as their carriers but in different configurations. All of these systems however are designed based on different mixing and oxygenation principles. We have two types of packed bed systems: a fixed bed where the packed bed is stationary, and a moving bed where the packed bed is moving and not stationary. The fixed bed bioreactors (PBBR) such as MA FBBR and MA BFBR utilizes mechanical means for the mixing and aeration while the moving bed bioreactor such as patented HRBR with 3D porous carrier adopts the most efficient oxygen transfer principle, the Roller Bottle Principle (direct transfer of oxygen from air to cells without transfer through the bulk liquid phase). We differentiate our fixed bed bioreactor from other competitors aforementioned with simpler design, construction, maintenance and operation, easier scale-up and enabling carrier sampling during the process etc. Both the iCellis and Celligen Plus bioreactors have been reported to be used successfully for suspension cell cultures as well. With the capability of altering flow pattern in our moving bed bioreactor system we are also able to achieve the same effect as these two systems for suspension culture and have mitigated their major shortcomings including scalability, shear effect, and foaming issues and ability of carrier sampling.
Note that our AL MBBR was named as a moving bed bioreactor which may not be classified as a packed bed but is conventionally named in the waste treatment industry as a moving bed reactors where the carriers are not packed but move freely in the liquid medium of the reactor.