ABSTRACT
The term “bioreactor” is generally applied to developed reactors or reactor systems. Various types of reactors using immobilized biocatalyst systems, membrane bioreactors, reactors for modern environmental treatment systems, and reactors associated with recombinant deoxyribonucleic acid or cell fusion techniques are examples of bioreactors. Bioproducts coming from bioreactors are very diverse. They are sugars, lipids, proteins or peptides, hormones, vitamins, acids including amino acids, antibiotics and cytokines. Several types of bioreactors have been developed, such as stirred vessels, bubble columns and reactors using immobilized biocatalysts. The construction of expert systems and the application of fuzzy control algorithms are eagerly studied for various fermentors or bioreactors. Regarding bioreactors for plant cell culture, devices to remove the adverse effects of fluid dynamic stress are necessary. Several kinds of biocatalysts such as microorganisms, organelles, animal cells and plant cells are used in bioreactors. One of exciting bioreactor topics is the microreactor for protein synthesis. In this reactor system, the reaction contains ribosomes.
