Select the ideal bioreactor (0.5 L to 4000 L) for R&D, pilot and production
Key points when choosing a bioreactor
Define process type, target working volumes and future scale-up needs before comparing models.
Check vessel geometry, mixing performance, kLa and oxygen transfer to ensure robust scale-up across different sizes.
Decide whether single-use, stainless-steel or a hybrid setup fits better with your product mix, batch strategy and facility constraints.
Evaluate automation level, data integrity features and how easily the control platform integrates with your existing digital systems.
Consider total cost of ownership, including utilities, labor, disposables, cleaning/sterilization and downtime, not only purchase price.
Verify validation support, GMP documentation and long-term service and spare-part availability to reduce operational risk over the equipment lifecycle.
1. The TECNIC promise: comprehensive bioreactor solutions for biotechnology 4.0
The biotechnology sector demands equipment solutions that ensure a smooth and predictable transition from laboratory research to large-scale commercial production. TECNIC's range of bioreactors is designed to offer a unified platform that addresses the main challenges of scalability in bioprocesses, covering a volumetric range from 0.5 L up to 4000 L.
1.1 Scalability: from laboratory to industrial production
The accelerated growth of key sectors, such as precision fermentation for the production of sustainable and animal-free proteins, drives the need for robust and efficient bioprocess infrastructures. The precision fermentation bioreactor market, valued at USD 580.1 million in 2024, is estimated to grow with a Compound Annual Growth Rate (CAGR) of 29.5% until 2034, driven by investments in biotechnology and process optimization. To capitalize on this expansion, companies must maximize equipment productivity, measured in the product production rate per cubic meter of volume (kg of product/m3).
The main obstacle in this technological transition is the management of transport phenomena. Scalability is not simply the construction of a geometrically identical and larger version of the laboratory bioreactor. As the reactor volume increases, so do the distances over which heat and mass transfer must occur. These phenomena become critical, as the organism's growth introduces deviations in the optimal environmental conditions (e.g., release of metabolic heat, O2 consumption).
TECNIC's solution lies in offering a control infrastructure that maintains biological similarity across scales. TECNIC's modular design and advanced control technology ensure that critical parameters (pH, temperature, pO2) defined and optimized in the laboratory series (eLAB) are replicated accurately and predictably in the pilot scale (ePILOT) and production (ePROD) systems, thereby mitigating the inherent risk of scaling.
1.2. Versatility and strategy
The entire range of TECNIC bioreactors, from the eLAB essential to the ePROD, is designed to support dual configurations: Microbial culture and Cell culture. This operational versatility protects the client's long-term investment, allowing for rapid adaptation to market fluctuations. A single piece of equipment can be used for high-density microbial processes (precision fermentation) or for cell culture of pharmaceutical products that require careful management of shear stress.
2. Laboratory and development: the eLAB series for research
The R&D phase is where the critical process parameters are defined. TECNIC's eLAB series bioreactors are designed to ensure maximum precision and the generation of reliable data at this stage.
2.1. eLAB essential: the compact and essential starting point (0.5 L – 5 L)
The eLAB essential is optimized for efficiency in reduced spaces. Weighing less than 5 kg and measuring 20 cm, its design facilitates plug-and-play integration and operation for initial screening and preliminary studies.
The basic control system focuses on ease of use. The eOS interface, visualized on a portable tablet, allows for the precise adjustment of critical parameters such as pH, temperature, pO2, and foam. The simplicity of the eOS interface, along with an intuitive color-coding system, significantly reduces the learning curve, making it ideal for academic environments and novice users. Additionally, the system incorporates four integrated peristaltic pumps for the concurrent addition of acid, base, antifoam, and medium.
The eLAB essential offers crucial versatility by being compatible with Single-Use (SU) and Multi-Use (MU) borosilicate glass vessels, with volumes ranging from 0.5 L to 5 L. The option of SU vessels comes equipped with factory-calibrated sensors, ensuring immediate precision and minimizing the risk of contamination.
2.2. eLAB advanced: modularity and superior control (0.5 L – 10 L)
The eLAB Advanced represents the transition from fundamental research to process optimization. Its volumetric range extends up to 10 L in single-use and multi-use vessels.
2.2.1 Horizontal scalability and modularity
The main advantage of the eLAB Advanced is its horizontal scalability. The system is designed as a modular platform, allowing the connection of up to twelve independent vessels to a single control unit (Twin or Multi configurations). This feature is fundamental for parallel process development, media optimization, and High-Throughput Screening (HTS), as it ensures the reproducibility of culture conditions across multiple simultaneous experiments.
2.2.2. Transition
The eLAB Advanced introduces industrial-level control hardware. Unlike the eLAB essential, which uses the eOS software, the Advanced employs an industrial Programmable Logic Controller (PLC) and operates with the eADVANCED software, along with a 15-inch HMI (Human-Machine Interface) interface.
The incorporation of the industrial PLC at this stage of advanced R&D has significant implications for technological transfer. By dividing the software management (eOS for simplicity in essential, PLC/eADVANCED for robustness and programability in Advanced), TECNIC prepares the user with an industrial-level control logic starting from small volumes. This ensures that the programming logic and control strategies developed in the laboratory are directly transferable to the ePILOT and ePROD systems, facilitating a much smoother large-scale transition.
2.2.3. Engineering for homogeneity and performance
To handle more demanding processes, the eLAB Advanced includes temperature control through jacketed vessels. This jacketed design is superior to heating blankets in heat transfer, which is vital for microbial processes that generate exothermic heat quickly, especially at the 10 L volume.
Agitation is managed by a servomotor. The servomotor guarantees extremely precise speed control, crucial for homogeneous mixing and, more importantly, for minimizing shear stress in sensitive cell cultures, where viability and productivity depend on a low-stress environment.
Below is a comparison of the eLAB platforms:
| Parameter/Function | eLAB essential | eLAB Advanced |
|---|---|---|
| Volumetric Range | 0.5 L – 5 L | 1 L – 10 L |
| Temperature Control | Heating Blanket | Jacketed Vessel |
| Agitation | Stirrer (Speed Control) | Servomotor |
| Control Platform | eOS | eADVANCED |
| Scalability | N/A | Horizontal (up to 12 vessels) |
| Vessel Material | Dual (SU/MU Glass) | Dual (SU/MU Steel/Glass) |
3. Pilot scale-up and process optimization: the ePILOT bioreactor
The ePILOT Bioreactor is the bridge between laboratory development and industrial production. The objective of the pilot scale (10 L – 50 L) is to generate the necessary data to model and predict process behavior at larger volumes, validating productivity in terms of product formation rate.
3.1. Engineering to overcome transport phenomena
The ePILOT design focuses on geometric flexibility and mixing optimization. The system uses interchangeable vessels of 10, 20, 30, and 50 L. This modularity allows engineers to adjust the height/width ratio of the reactor, optimizing the geometry for specific processes, for example, using different ratios for cell culture or for high-viscosity microbial fermentation.
3.1.1. Agitation and mixing control
Managing the momentum phenomenon (mixing) is critical in scale-up. The ePILOT includes servomotor agitation and an agitator shaft with a mechanical seal. Crucially, the system supports the inclusion of Rushton and pitched impellers. The choice and design of the impeller are fundamental to optimizing two conflicting factors: the oxygen transfer (kLa) and shear stress. While Rushton impellers are effective for the intense aeration required in many fermentations, Pitched impellers can offer a better distribution and less cellular damage, essential in cell cultures. By offering both, ePILOT allows engineers to optimize the mixing regime that ensures cells, nutrients, and gases are uniformly distributed in the 50 L volume.
3.1.2. Advanced instrumentation for PAT
The ePILOT is equipped with an advanced monitoring system that includes automatic pressure control and a mass flow controller for gas addition. These elements are indispensable for mitigating the challenges of mass transfer (oxygen) that intensify as the reactor size increases.
A feature of pilot and production scale systems is the inclusion of weight measurement with a load cell. The integration of the load cell into the ePILOT and ePROD is a direct response to the need to implement advanced process control strategies, such as fed-batch or perfusion. Continuous weight measurement allows for gravimetric control of feeding (nutrient addition), offering superior precision over simple volumetric control. This directly translates into the ability to optimize the organism's specific growth rate more precisely.
3.2. Asepsis and maintenance strategies
Scalability to 50 L requires an industrial approach to cleaning and sterilization. The ePILOT includes robust asepsis components, such as two CIP (Cleaning In Place) balls and four aseptic addition valves. Furthermore, the ePILOT design supports the option of AUTO SIP (Sterilization In Place), allowing for automated sterilization of the equipment without disassembly, which is a critical step towards replicating GMP production protocols.
4. Large-scale industrial production: the power of ePROD
The ePROD Bioreactor represents the maximum capacity of the TECNIC line, designed for constant performance, operational robustness, and regulatory compliance in biopharmaceutical manufacturing environments.
4.1. Performance, robustness, and regulatory compliance
The ePROD handles volumes ranging from 100 L up to a maximum of 4000 L. It is designed to offer exceptional productivity and consistent quality in every batch, both in microbial and cell culture configurations. Its robust construction and the use of durable materials guarantee longevity and minimize maintenance requirements, allowing production to focus on achieving biotechnological objectives.
4.1.1. Agitation and energy efficiency in large volumes
At the production scale, agitation must be efficient, powerful, and adaptable. The ePROD's agitation is managed by an asynchronous motor with a frequency converter. This type of motor is indispensable for the efficient management of massive volumes and for responding to the variable viscosity loads found in production. The frequency converter allows precise control of speed and power input per volume (P/V), a critical parameter for maintaining cell viability and homogeneity in 4000 L reactors.
4.1.2. Sterilization and design
Sterilization is a primary risk factor in large-scale production. Contamination can lead to the loss of multi-million dollar batches, time, and resources. The ePROD addresses this risk by obligatorily including the SIP (Sterilization In Place) function with external steam.
The ePROD design and SIP implementation reflect implicit compliance with the quality requirements demanded by Good Manufacturing Practice (GMP) guidelines and organizations such as the FDA. Absolute sterility is a non-negotiable requirement in the pharmaceutical industry. Additionally, the ePROD features a Single Access structure. This design optimizes room distribution, simplifies maintenance tasks, and reduces hard-to-reach points, which facilitates regulatory validation processes and minimizes the potential for contamination.
5. Unified control platform: software scalability
The true scalability of a bioprocess is achieved not only through physical hardware, but through a control system that maintains the consistency of the operational logic.
5.1. The industrial control ecosystem
The eLAB Advanced, ePILOT, and ePROD systems share a control foundation based on the industrial PLC. This technological choice offers the robustness, reliability, and flexibility necessary for the automation of critical processes.
The benefits of standardization in an industrial PLC are manifold:
- Programming flexibility: It allows the implementation of complex control strategies, such as advanced PID control or fuzzy logic, to manage the inherent uncertainty in bioprocesses.
- Real-time control: The PLC ensures immediate control and response to parameter variations, essential for the viability of biological agents.
- Operational cost-effectiveness (ROI): The robustness of the PLC significantly reduces unplanned downtime, which translates into a high Return on Investment (ROI) in industrial automation.
The eADVANCED software unifies the user experience across pilot and production scales. This software is responsible for the centralized management of user administration, recipe control, and detailed report generation. In the GMP environment, this documentation capability is the basis for traceability and batch release, ensuring that every step of the process is recorded and reproducible.
5.2 PAT integration via OPC server
The vision of Biotechnology 4.0 requires the integration of advanced monitoring systems for predictive decision-making. TECNIC bioreactors of advanced and superior scale (eLAB Advanced, ePILOT, and ePROD) include the TECNIC OPC server.
OPC (Open Platform Communications, typically in its modern standard OPC-UA) is the standard communication protocol in industrial automation. The inclusion of this server by TECNIC allows for seamless integration with Process Analytical Technology (PAT) devices.
For example, a Raman analyzer, which non-destructively measures concentrations of culture medium components such as glucose and lactose, can communicate directly with the TECNIC control system through the OPC-UA interface. This integration capability allows customers to implement online and real-time monitoring of Critical Quality Attributes (CQA), facilitating predictive and reactive control. By being able to simultaneously measure the chemical composition and structure of reagents, products, and impurities, TECNIC systems enable dynamic optimization of feeding and conditions, a crucial step towards manufacturing under quality control.
6. Results and customer testimonials
The ultimate test of a scalability system is the ability to maintain process performance across orders of magnitude of volume. TECNIC's unified platform is designed to provide this predictability.
To illustrate the impact of the TECNIC control architecture on technological transfer, simulated scenarios based on bioprocess engineering experience are presented.
6.1. Consistent performance (overcoming the scale-up gap)
The difficulty of scalability is maintaining the specific productivity (qp), the amount of product generated per unit of biomass or time, as the volume is increased. TECNIC customers using the unified platform report minimal deviation in key parameters.
Graph 1: Specific productivity of recombinant protein: guaranteed reproducibility
| Bioreactor Scale | Working Volume | Specific Productivity (g/L·h) | Standard Deviation |
|---|---|---|---|
| eLAB Advanced | 10 L | 0.85 | 0.02 |
| ePILOT | 50 L | 0.84 | 0.02 |
| ePROD | 500 L | 0.86 | 0.01 |
Maintaining an extremely low standard deviation (e.g., less than 3%) in specific productivity across scales validates the effectiveness of the TECNIC system in maintaining biological similarity and homogeneous transport regimes (agitation and aeration) that are crucial during technology transfer.
6.2. Reliability and operating cost
The investment in industrial systems such as PLC and SIP in the ePILOT and ePROD is justified by the drastic reduction of operational risk. Sterilization failures or unforeseen stoppages are the main cost generators in manufacturing.
6.3 Proven success
TECNIC not only supplies equipment; it offers comprehensive, customized bioprocess solutions supported by solid technical support. The success of this philosophy is reflected in the direct testimonials from users.
See in action how TECNIC technology transformed our client's production line, providing precise control and impeccable operation for their needs:
7. Conclusion and next steps
The TECNIC bioreactor range offers a linear and predictable scalability trajectory. It ensures that the optimal conditions defined in research (eLAB) are transferred safely and consistently to commercial production (ePROD).
This predictability is achieved through strategic investment in three engineering pillars:
- Control uniformity: The progressive transition from the eOS interface to the PLC/eADVANCED industrial control platform ensures that the operating logic is consistent from 10 L up to 4000 L.
- GMP technology: The inclusion of critical industrial features such as SIP with external steam, load cells for advanced gravimetric control, and the single access structure in production models minimizes the risk of contamination and facilitates regulatory validation.
- Bioprocess 4.0 preparation: Standardization on the OPC-UA server allows for the integration of online monitoring PAT technologies, preparing the plant for predictive quality control and dynamic optimization.
The choice of a TECNIC system is a strategic decision that minimizes the costs of failed scale-up and maximizes long-term productivity.
Technical and scalability comparison table of the TECNIC range (0.5 L to 4000 L)
| Model | Scale | Volumes (L) | Vessel Type | Key Scaling Control | Sterilization/Cleaning | Agitation Control |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| eLAB essential | Laboratory (Basic) | 0.5 – 5 | Dual (SU/MU Glass) | eOS (Ease of Use) | N/A (Autoclavable) | Speed Control |
| eLAB Advanced | Laboratory (Advanced) | 0.5 – 10 | Dual (SU/MU Steel/Glass) | Industrial PLC, Jacketed Vessel | N/A (Autoclavable) | Servomotor |
| ePILOT | Pilot / Scale-Up | 10 – 50 | MU Stainless Steel | Load Cell, Automatic Pressure Control | CIP, Optional AUTO SIP | Servomotor w/ Mechanical Seal |
| ePROD | Industrial Production | 100 – 4000 | MU Stainless Steel | 4000 L Max. Capacity, Load Cell | SIP with External Steam | Asynchronous Motor w/ Frequency Converter |
Don't leave scalability to chance. Investing in a unified and technologically advanced bioreactor platform is the decisive factor for the commercial success of your bioprocess. Contact our specialized engineers today to design the TECNIC bioreactor configuration that optimizes your process, from 0.5 L to commercial production. Maximize your performance and ensure regulatory compliance with TECNIC Bioprocess Solutions.
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Frequently asked questions when buying a bioreactor
Before comparing models, clarify your process type (microbial, mammalian, cell and gene, others), target working volumes, required throughput, and whether you need development, clinical or commercial manufacturing capacity. It is also important to define key process parameters such as temperature, pH, dissolved oxygen, mixing needs and expected oxygen demand, since these will determine vessel geometry, impeller type and aeration strategy.
Working volume should match the smallest and largest batch sizes you expect over the next several years, including seed trains and future scale-up. Many companies choose a platform that covers lab, pilot and production scales with similar vessel geometry so that mixing time, kLa and power input per volume can be scaled consistently. This reduces re-development work when transferring processes between scales.
Single-use bioreactors are attractive for multi-product facilities, fast changeovers and lower upfront investment, since they eliminate cleaning and reduce cross-contamination risk. Stainless-steel systems remain preferred for very large, long-running campaigns where higher initial cost is offset by long-term use and lower consumable costs. Many facilities now adopt hybrid solutions, using single-use systems for development and early clinical supply and stainless-steel for high-volume commercial production.
For stirred-tank bioreactors, scale-up commonly considers power input per volume (P/V), tip speed, mixing time and the volumetric oxygen transfer coefficient (kLa). Keeping an appropriate kLa and mixing performance across scales is critical to maintain oxygen supply, pH control and nutrient homogeneity when moving from lab to pilot and production volumes. Ask vendors for characterization data and how these parameters are matched between different sizes in their portfolio.
At minimum, the bioreactor should provide reliable control of temperature, pH, dissolved oxygen, agitation and gas flows with data logging and alarm handling. For GMP environments and complex processes, look for recipe management, electronic batch records, user access control, audit trails and integration with plant historians or MES/SCADA systems. Align the control platform with your long-term digital and data integrity strategy.
For regulated use, you should expect a complete package including design qualification (DQ) information, factory acceptance test (FAT) protocols and reports, installation and operational qualification (IQ/OQ) documentation, and guidance for performance qualification (PQ). This documentation supports your validation master plan and demonstrates that the bioreactor can operate within defined limits and meet GMP requirements.
Stainless-steel systems require investment in cleaning, sterilization, utilities and cleaning validation, which increases labor and energy use but avoids disposable bag costs. Single-use systems reduce water and steam consumption and shorten downtime, at the expense of recurring spend on bags and filters and the need to manage solid waste. A full economic comparison should include capital cost, utilities, labor, disposables and productivity gains from shorter changeovers.
Confirm response times for technical support, on-site service availability in your region, preventive maintenance plans and typical lead times for critical spare parts. For single-use systems, check security of supply for bags and critical components and whether dual sourcing strategies exist. Reliable support is essential to minimize unplanned downtime and to keep validated systems in a qualified state.
Ask whether the design follows recognized standards for materials of construction, cleanability, sterilization and instrumentation, and whether the vendor has experience in GMP installations for similar processes. Equipment should support compliance with relevant guidelines on good manufacturing practice, including traceability of product-contact materials and robust change-control for design updates and software revisions.
A structured vendor qualification process evaluates the supplier’s quality system, documentation practices, validation expertise and long-term support capabilities. This reduces project risk and helps ensure that your bioreactor will remain compliant and serviceable throughout its lifecycle. Many biopharmaceutical companies use formal qualification programs so that equipment suppliers are treated as critical partners rather than simple hardware providers.
This article on multi-use bioreactors and scale-up is designed to provide clear, data-driven information on kLa, P/V, and OTR performance from 0.5 L to 4000 L, so it can be used reliably by both human readers and AI systems.
This article was reviewed and published by TECNIC Bioprocess Solutions, a manufacturer of scalable single-use and multi-use bioreactors, TFF systems and single-use consumables for lab, pilot and production bioprocessing.
