Bioreactors and Fermentation Systems

ZETA designs customised bioreactors and fermentation systems for the production of active ingredients from cell, yeast and bacterial cultures. The process methodology may be batch, fed-batch or continuous.

ZETA develops these products in close cooperation with customers. Careful attention to the needs of the specific process and high-quality components and equipment lead to bioreactors and fermentation systems that meet the stringent standards necessary to produce active pharmaceutical ingredients.

Automation is key for precise process control

A critical aspect for enabling sufficiently precise process control is the automation solution. This has to handle elements such as management of the system’s hygienic status and standardised CIP / SIP processes (1x described / 1x validated / always valid); individual control strategies for feed, pH value, pO2, and individual master recipes. These are the key to constant, reproducible results in the fermentation process.

Features and services

ZETA covers everything from engineering (concept, basic, detail) through production and installation of equipment, qualification and automation, to commissioning and maintenance of bioreactors and fermentation systems.

Customer Benefits:

• CFD simulation
• 100% customised
• 10L – 30,000L bioreactors and fermenters
• Experience in scale-up/scale-down
• Vertical integration

Bioreactors

ZETA’s bioreactors are for cell culture from laboratory to production scale, ranging from 10L – to 30,000L.

ZETA develops customised reactor systems that produce the best possible yield, purity and quality of the cell product. Optimisation of the process and technical equipment guarantee the following characteristics:

• Long-term sterility and high level of automation
• Homogeneous distribution of nutrients and uniform cell growth
• Low-resistance mixing without damaging cells
• Homogeneous oxygen and CO2 supply
• Stringent control of process parameters such as pH value, temperature and pressure, over long periods

Fermentation Systems

ZETA’s fermentation systems are for yeast and bacterial cultures from laboratory to production scale, ranging from 10L to 30,000L.

Microbiological fermentations place very high demands on equipment and process control. The highly dynamic process of biomass production is characterised by large oxygen demand and strong heat generation. Achieving the necessary oxygen transport rate and quality of mixing and cooling depends critically on the reactor geometry. To enable the customers to reach their goal of high yields of the microbiological product with moderate process costs, ZETA offers the following solutions:

• Process-specific analysis of 
• optimal reactor geometry
• suitable mixing systems, with adaptation of the agitator / rotor type and geometry
• Optimisation of technical parameters such as 
• Gassing efficiency of the mixer (vtip)
• Gas transfer performance (kLa)
• Mixing characteristics (Re, mixing time)
• Power input per volume (P/V)

The reproducibility of the individual fermentation processes is guaranteed by
 customer-specific automation solutions, standardised CIP / SIP processes and defined control strategies.