In an early October webcast, Surendra Balekai (senior global product manager for bioproduction at Thermo Scientific) discussed improving bioreactor design for a 5:1 turn-down ratio. Balekai has worked for over 17 years with biological manufacturers in designing processing equipment for developing vaccines, blood products, and recombinant proteins. Balekai’s Presentation When bioreactors operate at a 5:1 ratio (20% volume), the primary challenges are carbon dioxide build-up in the headspace and fluid mixing at low volume. The CO2 produced will significantly affect…