4 ms·
If rapid sterilization is a requirement of the process, than it makes sense to embedded it into the design. The 100 ton reactor could have electric heating elem
by yholio 5y ago
If rapid sterilization is a requirement of the process, than it makes sense to embedded it into the design. The 100 ton reactor could have electric heating elements surrounding it on every side, or magnetic loops that induce heating to the stainless steel vat. Do a dry pre-heat at 500K to vaporize any leftovers then fill it with clean water and bring it to a boiling point, establishing slight positive pressure against any pores or leaks. And voila, you have a sterile 100 ton reactor with zero bacteria.
Similar sterilization systems would be installed on all ingress ports, using heat, ultraviolet or gamma ray, depending on the nature and heat sensitivity of the input, with slight overlap between the different systems.
Since you are culturing organic life from dead raw materials, and life is so sensitive to heat, gamma rays etc., it seems relatively simple to make sure nothing alive enters other than what has been grown in upstream reactors. Recursively apply these principles down to the last cell inserted into the process inside a (small) clean room.
- plaidfuji 5y agoWhat you’re describing (at least the heat aspect) is referred to as “Sterilization in Place” and it is standard practice to design into bioreactors already. Contamination still happens. In general you’re right though, the concept of continuous automated sterilization will need to be reimagined, but like many of the topics addressed in this article, a lot of the low hanging fruit has been picked. https://www.flottweg.com/wiki/separation-technology/sterilization-in-place-sip/ https://www.flottweg.com/wiki/separation-technology/steriliz...
- yholio 5y agoThe description linked talks about a distinct sterilization phase, where hot steam is passed trough the installation prior to use. It seems exactly like the type of situation described in the article, where small welding gaps allow bacteria to stay alive - I would imagine, especially if the surrounding metal has enough thermal mass. My suggestion was a bit more nuanced, heat the very body of the reactor + reaction medium; but I could be venting hot air. Nonetheless, it's not a fundamental, thermodynamic limit, it's not like bacteria spontaneously materialize inside vats above a certain volume. It's a technical problem to solve, it seems solvable and once you solve it, all 100 ton reactors can use that design.