Question

What is the major difference between simple stirred bioreactor and sparged stirred tank bioreactor? What is its advantage?

Answer 1

Hint: The major difference between the simple stirred-tank bioreactor and sparged stirred-bioreactor is based upon the surface area. Both of them have different surface areas.
A bioreactor is a cylindrical vessel in which biological processes are carried out on a large scale to make a desired product.

Complete answer:
A bioreactor is a cylindrical vessel in which biological processes are carried out on a large scale. It is used for the culture of host cells (in recombinant DNA technology) to get desired products. In the laboratory, only a limited and small amount of desired product is prepared however large scale production requires bioreactors. In this, raw materials are biologically converted into specific products, individual enzymes, etc.It is used to produce pharmaceuticals, vaccines, or antibodies.
Most commonly used bioreactor is the stirring type.
Stirring type bioreactors are of two kinds: Simple stirred tank bioreactor, Sparged stirred-tank bioreactor
A stirred-tank reactor is cylindrical in shape or having a curved base that simplifies the mixing of the reactor substances and the stirrer helps in uniform mixing and availability of oxygen throughout the bioreactor.
In a sparged stirred-tank bioreactor, the sterile air is sparged through the reactor.
Sparged stirred-tank bioreactor has increased surface area for oxygen transfer than simple stirred-tank.
The advantages of the bioreactor are:
> Continuous operation
> Good temperature control
> Easily adapts to two-phase runs
> Good control
> Simplicity of construction
> Low operating (labor) cost
> Easy to clean

Note:
Bioreactors are used for the host cells to be cultured and allow it to express the recombinant DNA either as such or as desired product or as recombinant protein. Sparged stirred-tank bioreactor has increased surface area for oxygen transfer than simple stirred-tank. As in a laboratory, only a limited and small amount of desired product is prepared thus for large scale production bioreactors are used.