What are the advantages and disadvantages of disposable bioreactors? How should I choose?

In traditional stainless steel bioreactors, despite strict cleaning and disinfection procedures, there is still a possibility of residual microorganisms or other impurities, leading to cross contamination between different batches of products.

Disposable bioreactors are designed for single use and are discarded after use, completely avoiding cross contamination between batches.

There are various specifications and forms of disposable bioreactors, which can be flexibly selected based on factors such as the scale of experiments or production, the type of cell culture, etc. There are corresponding products ranging from laboratory scale small reactors (with a capacity of a few liters) to pilot scale and even industrial production scale (with a capacity of thousands of liters).

Meanwhile, suitable disposable bioreactors can also be found for different cell culture methods, such as suspension culture, adherent culture, etc.

Easy installation and verification

Compared to traditional stainless steel bioreactors, the installation process of disposable bioreactors is relatively simple. No need for complex pipeline connections, welding, or extensive cleaning verification work.

Generally, it is only necessary to place the reactor on a suitable support or equipment, connect the necessary inlet and outlet pipelines, and perform simple operations.

Disposable bioreactors reduce the time spent on cleaning, disinfection, sterilization, and other processes. In traditional reactors, these operations may take several days, while disposable reactors have shorter preparation time before use and can quickly start the next batch of production after one batch of products is completed, improving production efficiency.

Disposable bioreactors are disposable products, which means that each use requires the purchase of a new reactor, which will increase production costs in the long run.

Especially for large-scale production enterprises, the extensive use of disposable reactors will result in higher consumable costs. In addition, the disposal of waste from disposable reactors also requires a certain cost.

At present, disposable bioreactors still have some limitations in large-scale industrial production applications. 

On the one hand, for the cultivation demand of ultra large scale (such as tens of thousands of liters), the manufacturing and transportation costs of disposable reactors will sharply increase; On the other hand, large-scale production requires higher stability and performance of reactors, and disposable reactors may require further technological improvements in this regard.