Bubble column and airlift bioreactor systems for animal cell culture applications

Many biopharmaceutical industries have focused on the screening for novel cell lines and producers for manufacturing of advanced therapeutics. Commercial scale productions at reduced cost and improved productivity are only possible with the bioreactor systems. Animal cell culture bioreactors have all started to draw attention in view that 20th century and advanced significantly over the previous few a long time especially with the need for viral vaccine productions, monoclonal antibody productions and in vitro meat productions. To produce these high value-added products in large scales, bioreactor configurations are advanced to reduce investment and operational costs, control the process parameters, enhance productivity, and make easier scale-up. Although novel bioreactor systems have interested in recent years, conventional bubble column and airlift systems are still the most familiar and experienced bioreactors. Pneumatically agitated bioreactors have been studied for many years in animal cell culture. This current review intends to provide an overview of pneumatic bioreactor productions for animal cell culture applications in key items of cell culture and bioreactor technology, for example, design parameters, transport phenomena during cultivation, shear sensitivity of cells. Besides, the previous studies, investigated that the design parameters and process conditions for productivity and shear sensitivity, have been reviewed and summarized.