Scalability—an important aspect in bioprocessing
Several factors play a role in a reliable bioprocess scale-up [1, 2]. Kinetics and thermodynamics are virtually unaffected by the reaction volume. However, the mass transfer within a process is highly dependent on the scale. The geometries of the bioreactor and the impeller influence the mixing time and as such the oxygen uptake, substrate supply of a culture and the reagents addition for e.g. pH-control just as the agitation speed and gassing rate do. Standardized bioreactor formats, in terms of height-to-diameter ratio for example, can contribute to a proper scale-up.