The Role of Reaction Engineering in Bioprocess Development

This short review highlights the role of reaction engineering as a tool for bioprocess development. Selected examples are discussed that demonstrate the need to understand thermodynamic and kinetic properties of the reaction system in order to identify potential bottlenecks. For coupled enzyme systems and reaction cascades modelling as well as selection of suitable reactor configurations is discussed. For the problem of overcoming product inhibition examples are given, followed by selected examples for in situ product removal. Finally, two reactor concepts for oxidation reactions requiring oxygen are briefly presented.