Executive Summary
The ChemDetect™ Analyzer is coupled to a novel micro flow cell that allows repeatable quanti-tative spectroscopic determination of liquid components. The system is calibrated to determine concentrations of relevant chemicals used in bioreactor feedstocks. Exercise of a test protocol for characterizing bioreactor feedstocks is carried out. It is found that the ChemDetect™ is sen-sitive to the relevant chemicals at better than 50 mg/L concentration over two decades of con-centration measurements for 90 second measurements. The analyzer can also differentiate be-tween mixtures of analytes, and was characterized to be stable to less than 4% drift over three days without calibration.
Overview
Bioreactor feedstocks and broths are essential for the production of pharmaceuticals and chemicals via cell cultures or fermentation. In particular, the chemical composition, acidity, and dissolved gas content must be carefully controlled to ensure optimal production. Infrared liquid spectroscopy has shown promise [1, 2] as a tool for monitoring the sugars and other chemicals present in bio-reactors. This study is meant to demonstrate the potential of the ChemDetect™ sensor for monitoring the components of bioreactor feedstocks.
Bioreactors typically consist of a temperature controlled liquid feedstock held in aseptic condi-tions to prevent growth and contamination by unwanted micro-organisms. A sensor for moni-toring the feedstock would ideally be able to monitor the liquid in situ without contamination. Attenuated total reflectance (ATR) infrared probes are promising in this regard, but first funda-mental ChemDetect™ performance with liquid spectroscopy must be demonstrated. Hence this study focusses first on determining performance for liquid transmission spectroscopy. These results can then be extended in a straightforward fashion for the design of an ATR probe that has the necessary performance for the application.
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