Biomass measurement in bioreactors is becoming even simpler and more comprehensive

With the combination of two new products, INFORS HT and aquila biolabs provide a new solution for the automatic, comprehensive and yet straightforward biomass measurement in bioreactors. This is possible with the technology of non-invasive online measurement of biomass which is integrated in the eve® platform software for bioprocesses. A manual offline biomass measurement is time-consuming, allows only a limited understanding of the bioprocess, and entails a higher rate of error. Because sensors are used, there is no need for manual samples for biomass measurement. aquila biolabs goes one step further and it offers a sensor – the CGQ BioR – which does not even need to be introduced into the culture medium. Instead, the sensor is mounted on the outer wall of the culture vessel and measures the biomass optically using scattered light measurements. In this way, detailed microbial growth kinetics are recorded in real time. At the same time, autoclaving and installation are eliminated beforehand – the sensor can be mounted at any time.The biomass data provided by the CGQ BioR can be used for process control, for example, in the growth-curve-based induction of protein production or to generate feeding profiles. If the data are transferred into eve®, the growth kinetics can be clearly documented and compared with earlier batches. The event-based control is thus just as easy as complex feeding profiles based on the biomass development. In addition, eve® provides a soft sensor for correlating the measured values with, for example, OD or bio dry mass.The CGQ BioR can be directly integrated into INFORS HT bioreactors. The measured values are displayed directly on their touch screens. Alternatively the sensor is available as a stand-alone version for the devices from third-party suppliers.