(631c) Application of Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) Method for the Development of Bioreactor Scale-Down Model

A robust and representative bioreactor scale down model is becoming a fundamental tool to facilitate rapid bioprocess development. At the early stage of development process, the scale down model is critical for process definition and prototyping in order that the cell performance, product yield, and product quality defined in small scale optimization studies are repeatable in larger scale. At the later stage of development life cycle, the scale down model is a key for process characterization and development of design space of the process. Computational fluid dynamics (CFD) has been widely used to solve and analyze problems that involve fluid flows by simulating the interaction of liquids and gases with surfaces defined by boundary conditions. In this study, the CFD techniques were used to develop a scale down model to investigate mixing, oxygen mass transfer characteristics and turbulence, strain rate, and bubble size distribution in a 5L stirred-tank bioreactor based on the engineering environment for the cell growth and metabolism. In addition, the validated small scale CFD model was compared to the large scale model (2K/15K) to verify its scalability in terms of energy dissipation (power per volume) or mass transfer coefficient (k_La).