Infors HT Labfors 5 Two-Station Benchtop Bioreactor System with Two 3.6 L Jacketed Vessels

Infors HT Labfors 5 benchtop bioreactor system configured as a two-station microbial fermentation platform with one master unit and one satellite unit. The system includes two 3.6 L jacketed, double-wall culture vessels for microbial cultivation, fed-batch development, strain screening, oxygen-transfer studies, and bioprocess scale-up research.

System configuration

• Infors HT Labfors 5 master unit with 12-inch color touchscreen
• Infors HT Labfors 5 satellite unit
• Two jacketed, double-wall, round-bottom culture vessels
• Total vessel volume: 3.6 L per vessel
• Working volume: 0.5–2.3 L per vessel
• Nominal vessel diameter: 150 mm
• Two base trays and communication/power cables
• Made in 2021

Agitation and vessel hardware

• Two Dunkermotoren 48 V brushless stir motors with shafts and mechanical seals
• Stirring speed with three impellers: 400–1,200 min⁻¹
• Three six-blade Rushton impellers per vessel
• Arch sparger for microbial cultivation
• Ring sparger
• Harvest probe
• Water hose kits for vessel jackets
• Exit gas coolers for exhaust conditioning and condensate recovery

Gas handling and process control

• Air, O₂, and CO₂ gas inputs
• Three mass flow controllers for gas-flow control and gas mixing
• Air/O₂ flow range: 0.05–5.0 L min⁻¹
• CO₂ flow range: 0.05–2.5 L min⁻¹
• Mass flow measurement and control accuracy: ±1.5% full scale
• pO₂ control through stirrer cascade, gas flow, and oxygen enrichment
• pO₂ control range: 0–100% saturation
• pO₂ measurement accuracy: ±1%
• Pressure control valve
• Brukert control valves for gas outlet, vessel outlet, and gas analysis connections

Pumps, sensors, and monitoring

• Four adjustable analog peristaltic pumps per station for acid, base, antifoam, and feed
• Pump speed: 0–74 min⁻¹
• pH control range: pH 2–12
• pH measurement accuracy: ±0.1
• Antifoam control range: 0–100%
• Pt100 temperature sensors with integrated cables
• Hamilton VP8 digital pH cable connections and pH sensors
• Hamilton VP8 digital DO cable connections and DO sensors
• Kern DS balances with 30 kg maximum capacity
• Sartorius Entris II balances with 4.2 kg maximum capacity

Temperature control and sterilization-related hardware

• Water circulation through the vessel jacket
• Integrated pump and 500 W heater in the basic unit
• Tap-water cooling through the jacket water circuit
• Temperature control range: 5 °C above inlet temperature to 70 °C
• Exit gas condensers for exhaust-gas cooling and condensate recovery

This laboratory bioreactor is suited to microbial fermentation, biotechnology process development, synthetic biology workflows, biomass production, fed-batch cultivation, aeration optimization, and biopharmaceutical process research. The dual-reactor configuration supports parallel experimentation and comparison of culture conditions.

The pre-owned system was serviced and function-tested, including the touchscreen, master-to-satellite communication, peristaltic pumps, agitation motors, temperature probes, dissolved oxygen sensors, pH sensors, temperature-control loop, gas-mixing components, and coolant distribution components.