CROSS REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS

This application claims the priority benefit of PCT/EP2016/06855 filed on Aug. 23, 2016 which claims priority benefit of Great Britain Application No. 1515330.7 filed Aug. 28, 2015. The entire contents of which are hereby incorporated by reference herein.

TECHNICAL FIELD OF THE INVENTION

The present invention relates to bioreactors, and more particularly to a condenser for a bioreactor. The invention also relates to a method of cultivating cells in a bioreactor.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

Cell culturing is an essential step in manufacturing biological products, and may be carried out in disposable bioreactors systems or in non-disposable bioreactors such as steel tank vessels. Oxygen is continuously supplied to promote cell growth, and carbon dioxide is removed. A gas stream going to or coming from a bioreactor may contain moisture entrained within the gas stream. The moisture in the gas may condense as the gas passes through a filter or other system component. The moisture and/or condensation may be detrimental to the functioning of the filter or other system component. Further, loss of moisture with the gas stream may lead to undesired concentration increases in the cell culture.

Currently available condensers require the addition of a separate filter heater to avoid condensation of residual moisture in the filter. This increases complexity and accordingly there is a need for an integrated device providing both condensation and filter heating.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

One aspect of the invention is to provide a condenser for a bioreactor exhaust with built-in filter heating. This is achieved with a condenser comprising an inlet adapted to be fluidically connected to a bioreactor exhaust port, a cooling chamber fluidically connected to the inlet and via a filter device to an outlet, at least one cooling conduit in contact with the cooling chamber, a heating conduit in contact with the filter device and a vortex tube arranged to convey a cold gas stream through the cooling conduit and to convey a hot gas stream through the heating conduit.

A technical advantage is that both cooling and heating is provided by a simple low-cost device which provides gas streams of suitable temperatures that can easily be conveyed to both a cooling chamber and a filter device.

A second aspect of the invention is to provide a bioreactor with a condenser. This is achieved with a bioreactor having a condenser as described above.

A third aspect of the invention is to provide a method for cell cultivation. This is achieved with a method comprising the steps of: providing a bioreactor as described above; adding culture medium and cells to the bioreactor; cultivating cells under agitation and addition of at least one gas to the bioreactor, wherein exhaust gas from the bioreactor is conveyed through the condenser to recycle a condensate to the bioreactor.

Further suitable embodiments of the invention are described in the dependent claims.

