Disposable Process Technology

The HyClone Single-Use Bioreactor (S.U.B.) has been co-developed by HyClone and Baxter Biosciences. It is intended as a retrofit product to replace the stainless steel bioreactor vessel in existing bioreactor systems rather than as a complete turn-key bioreactor system.
The design intent is to replace a conventional stirred tank bioreactor with a single-use replacement with the same functionality in which all the contact parts are discarded after use. The key elements of the design are based on a polyethylene impeller with a bearing / seal assembly linking it to an external drive unit. This provides all the advantages of single-use bioprocessing without having to buy a complete new bioreactor system.
The S.U.B. consists of the following components:

• Outer Support Container – with a mixing drive, control unit for mixing and heating and portable dolly.

• Single-Use Bioreactor BPC – complete with mixer, sparger, vent filter inlet and outlet ports, plus ports for integration of sensor probes and for liquid addition.

• This is supplied sterile and ready-to-use.

• Simple Control box – to operate the mixer motor (revolutions per minute step-less adjustable) and the electrical heating jacket.
  

Additional hardware components are needed to control the process but the S.U.B. is designed to integrate with most available measurement, control & regulation systems.The intended use is animal cell culture. The HyClone S.U.B. is not suitable for use as a microbial fermenter.Hyclone now launches S.U.B. systems with maximum working volumes of 50 and 250 L and plans an additional 1000 L system, available at the beginning of 2007.