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This past year has seen massive investments in vaccine research and development as well as production efficiency.  The pharmaceutical and biotech market utilizes either stainless steel tanks or single-use tanks in one of the main chemical processes for this development – fermentation.  During the fermentation growing process with bioreactor vessels, mass spectrometry analyzers have traditionally been used to measure exhausted gases from the process.  Analysis of these gases can determine respiration metrics – specifically looking at concentrations of oxygen, carbon dioxide, nitrogen and argon in the sample stream.  These values are then used to determine the oxygen uptakes rate (OUR) and carbon dioxide evaluation rate (CER).

In 2019, Schneider Electric’s AIT gas analyzer division released a new mass spectrometer for this very application – the MGA 1200CS series.  The MGA 1200CS was voted 2019 Product of the Year by the ISA Analyzer Division due to it drastically enhancing the respiration analysis by coming out with a mass spectrometer that has a 3 second response time: 1 second for purge, 1 second for measurement, 1 second for changeover to the next sample stream.  With a vastly quickened response time, fermentation control can now be quickly adjusted and automated based upon the mass spectrometers readings allowing pharmaceutical research, development, and production to make a drastic jump forward technologically.

One of the world’s leading vaccine manufacturers has been successfully testing the system for the past year. By utilizing a full multi-stream sampling system and mass spectrometer deployment in labs with multiple bio-reactors. The system can do up to 100 sample streams with the appropriate sampling system. 

The Schneider Electric MGA is ready for world deployment for any pharmaceutical or biotech applications where fermentation or bioreactors need quicker speeds!