Fabtech’s Single-Use Bioreactors: Double the Efficiency, Half the Downtime

Today, single-use technologies are being widely adopted in the biopharmaceutical landscape. Designed to meet the evolving demands of flexible, efficient, and contamination-free production, single-use bioreactors (SUBs) have become vital tools in modern bioprocessing.

Fabtech single-use bioreactors (SUBs) have redefined bioprocessing systems – from cell culture to microbial fermentation. Outperforming conventional stainless-steel systems, SUBs provide optimised performance and improved biomolecular synthesis capabilities.

Faster Production Setups

SUBs use pre-sterilised, disposable plastic bags instead of stainless-steel vessels. The extensive steps required for traditional bioreactors – cleaning, sterilisation, and validation are eliminated, reducing setup time and accelerating turnaround between batches. SUBs enable biopharmaceutical companies to bring new products to market faster, helping them to meet evolving patient needs. This is particularly appealing to contract manufacturing organisations (CMOs) and smaller biotech firms.

Seamless Batch Transitions

SUBs are flexible in adapting to different production requirements. Their compatibility with both large-scale production and smaller batch sizes make them suitable for a wide range of biopharmaceutical applications like personalised medicine and smaller, niche products including personalized medicine and gene therapies.

Reduced Risk of Contamination

Single-use bioreactors are designed to be discarded after each batch, thus preventing the carryover of previous batches’ microbes or contaminants. The risk of cross-contamination with reusable bioreactors is virtually eliminated. Single-use components, including the bioreactor vessel, tubing, and sensors, are also pre-sterilised to reduce the chance of contamination from external sources. By eliminating cleaning and sterilisation steps, the single-use systems not only save time but also maintain more consistent aseptic conditions throughout the bioprocess.

Enhanced Product Safety and Quality

By minimising contamination and simplifying processes, SUBs contribute to greater consistency and reliability in product quality. They optimise various bioprocess parameters, such as oxygen transfer, mixing, and mass transfer, leading to improved cell growth and product yield. The rigorous testing and quality control measures ensure the integrity of SUB components and minimise the risk of system failures or leaks.

Enabling Continuous Processing

SUBs support continuous bioprocessing, where product extraction and purification occur alongside culture growth. This method ensures product consistency, extends the culture lifecycle, and improves both productivity and cost-efficiency, making it suitable for high-demand biologics production. The steady-state environment can prolong the production phase of cell cultures, leading to increased biomass and/or metabolite amounts.

Supporting Sustainability

SUBs eliminate energy-intensive procedures like sterilisation and cleaning that are in multi-use systems, thus lowering overall energy usage. By eliminating the need for cleaning chemicals, SUBs contribute to a reduction in hazardous waste generation. As SUBs are discarded after use, the need for extensive water cleaning is also reduced. SUBs also offer flexibility and scalability, allowing easier adaptation to changing production needs and reducing the need for large capital investments.

Cost-Efficiency

Single-use technology reduces capital and operational expenditures. They eliminate the infrastructure needed for CIP/SIP systems and reduce costs associated with utilities, cleaning chemicals, and labor. For growing companies and decentralised facilities, this translates into faster ROI and streamlined operations.

Applications of Single-Use Bioreactors

1. Pharmaceutical and Biopharmaceutical Manufacturing

SUBs are a crucial part of Monoclonal Antibody Production, as a single-use strategy for continuous bioprocesses. It enables efficient and safe production of mAbs. SUBs are utilised in cell and gene therapies for the expansion of cells for therapeutic purposes. Due to the flexibility and ease of use, SUBs serve as a rapid response platform for vaccine manufacturing. SUBs are also used for the production of various recombinant proteins for therapeutic and diagnostic use.

2. Food and Beverage

SUBs play a growing role in cultured meat, enzyme production (like proteases and lipases for various food processing applications), and probiotic fermentation, where clean, small-scale, and high-throughput production is essential. SUBs, especially wave-type bioreactors, can be fine-tuned to produce Bioactive Macromolecules – enzymes with food processing capabilities.

3. Agricultural Biotechnology

SUBs support innovation in sustainable agriculture and genetically modified organisms (GMOs) development. SUBs can be used for producing bio-pesticides, plant cell cultures, and bio-fertilisers, cultivating plant cells to produce valuable secondary metabolites and agricultural proteins. SUBs are also used in exploring the production of cellular agricultural products like meat, milk, and other food products from animal cells, a potential solution to global food security challenges.

4. Industrial Enzymes and Biofuels

SUBs support the production of industrial enzymes for detergents, additives, leather processing, and textiles. They are also being explored in biofuel research for growing algae and engineered microbes.

5. Process Development and Optimisation

SUBs are used for cell culture in process development, including cell line development, media screening, and optimisation. SUBs streamline the efficient transfer of lab-scale findings to commercial production.

6. Tissue Engineering

Bioreactors are used to replicate the in vivo environment for understanding normal cell and molecular physiology. SUBs are also ideal in mimicking pathological states by replicating disease conditions for research purposes.

7. Research

Single-use systems also play a crucial role in process development, R&D labs, and pilot-scale production, offering reduced cleaning and validation needs. Owing to their low upfront cost and ease of use, SUBs are being used extensively in academic labs, research centres, and start-ups for small-scale production, feasibility studies, and experimental therapies.

Moving the Industry Forward

Single-use Bioreactors have become invaluable instruments in advancing biomanufacturing and various other applications. Already on a boom, this technology holds promises for enhancing bioprocessing efficiency and propelling the biotechnology field forward. At Fabtech, our SUBs are a cornerstone of our sustainable, high-performance therapeutic manufacturing solutions. By reducing contamination risks and minimising turnaround times, these systems empower faster, safer, and more reliable production, especially for delicate therapies such as monoclonal antibodies, cell therapies, and gene therapies.

Fabtech’s single-use systems are not just an alternative anymore, but a strategic advantage to achieve more responsive and scalable biomanufacturing.

Discover how Fabtech’s single-use bioreactor systems can simplify your operations and accelerate time to market. Get in touch with our life engineers today!