Bioprocessing Scale Up

Bioprocess scale up strategies

Eppendorf products for bioprocess scale up

Customer success stories

Bioprocessing scale up involves the increase in working volumes from small scale through to production scale. During scale up it is desirable to reproduce the process performance, which has been optimized at small scale, at larger scale, ideally without much need for process optimization at large working volumes. This requires reproducing the cells’ or organisms’ growth environment across scales. Several factors play a role in a reliable bioprocess scale up. Kinetics and thermodynamics are virtually unaffected by the reaction volume. However, the mass transfer within a process is highly dependent on the scale. On this page you can learn more about the parameters to control during bioprocessing scale up, as well as several strategies to ensure maximum efficiency and product quality is maintained.

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Get more insights, why the scale can influence the outcome of your bioprocess

Bioprocess scale up strategies

An established strategy when transitioning to larger working volumes is to monitor and control a single parameter. However, keeping one process parameter constant will change others; therefore, the cells’ growth environment can only be partly reproduced at different scales. Bioengineers must identify the parameters which influence cell growth and productivity most, to decide, which scale up strategy is the most suitable. Although bioprocessing scale up strategies that control several criteria are the most powerful, those that control singular parameters can still be effective, and are historically the most widely used due to their simplicity. Read on to learn more about common singular parameters to control.

Schematic drawing of bioprocessing scale-up

Constant power input per liquid volume‌

Constant tip speed‌

Constant k_La‌

Constant mixing time‌

Bioprocess scale-up from R&D to manufacturing

Find out more about cell culture scale-up in single-use bioreactors:

Learn about bioprocess scale-up strategies
Discover a scale-up workflow for scaling up mAB production in CHO cells
Learn about the Scale Up Assist software feature

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Eppendorf offers solutions for powerful bioprocessing scale up

The Eppendorf portfolio of bioreactor systems and vessels supports the seamless scale-up of cell culture and microbial bioprocesses from small-scale development to pilot production,using either single-use or reusable bioreactors.

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Scale up from development to production with Eppendorf bioreactor systems

Eppendorf offers a comprehensive range of bioreactor systems for small-, bench-, pilot-, and production-scale applications to meet your bioprocessing needs. Our bench-scale bioprocess controllers support a broad range of working volumes, enabling you to scale from development to production on a single platform. This helps reduce equipment-related variables and supports a smoother, more consistent scale-up process.

Discover our bioprocess controllers

Scale Up Assist for simplified scale-up

The Eppendorf applications team has characterized key scale-up parameters, including oxygen transfer rate (OTR), volumetric mass transfer coefficient (kLa), impeller power numbers, tip-speed ranges, and vessel geometries, for many of its bioreactor systems. These parameters are available to help streamline bioprocess scale-up. The BioFlo^® 320 and BioFlo^® 720 bioreactor control systems feature the Scale Up Assist software feature, which automatically calculates the parameter adjustments required for different vessel sizes.

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Eppendorf bioreactors for bioprocessing scale up

Bioreactors for cell culture scale up

For cell culture scale up Eppendorf offers scalable solutions from 100 mL to 500 L.

Single-use bioreactors: The BioBLU^® c Single-Use Bioreactor portfolio covers working volumes from 100 mL to 40 L. To make the progression from bench-scale to production-scale, the BioFlo^® 720 is a bioreactor control system which is compatible with Thermo Scientific HyPerforma® 5:1 Single-Use Bioreactors with working volumes up to 500 L.
Glass bioreactors: Eppendorf glass bioreactors for cell culture applications cover working volumes from 60 mL to 10.5 L and are compatible with the small and bench scale Eppendorf bioprocess systems .

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Bioreactors for fermentation scale up

For fermentation scale up Eppendorf offers scalable solutions from 60 mL to 10.5 L.

Glass bioreactors: Eppendorf glass bioreactors for microbial applications cover working volumes from 60 mL to 10.5 L and are compatible with the small and bench-scale Eppendorf bioprocess systems .
Single-use bioreactors: The BioBLU^® f Single-Use Bioreactor portfolio covers working volumes from 65 mL to 3.75 L. These stirred-tank bioreactors fully address the specific needs of fermentation.

Read more about the scalability of E. coli fermentation in BioBLU^® f Single-Use Bioreactors.

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How our customers use our products

Find some application examples of how the Eppendorf bioprocess products were used for bioprocessing scale up and scale down.

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Cell culture scale up and scale down

Scaling up biosimilar production

Read, how scientists at UGA Biopharma scaled-up a biosimilar production process from small to bench scale using the k_La value as a scale up criterium.

Scaling up rAAV production

Read about scaling-up rAAV production using BioBLU^® c Single-Use Bioreactors.

Viral vector production scale-down

Read, how scientists at Genethon developed a scale-down model for viral vector production using the DASbox^® Mini Bioreactor System.

Fermentation scale up and scale down

Fermentation scale-up from 2 L to 200 L

Read, how scientists at Biotrend scaled-up a B. saccari fermentation process from 2 L to 200 L.

E. coli fermentation scale-down

Read, how scientists at Evonik evaluated the scale-down capabilities of DASbox^® Mini Bioreactor System for an E. coli bioprocess.

Scale-down model development

Read about scale-down model development at the Jülich Research Center.

Moving to a bioreactor

On this page we focus on bioprocessing scale up from small to large bioreactors. If you are currently cultivating your cells or organisms in shake flasks or dishes, this first requires a process transfer from shakers or incubators to bioreactors. Interested in how to move from shaker to bioreactor?

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