Challenges for Bioreactor Design and Operation

The concepts of bioreactor design and operation harbor a wide set of engineering theory, methodologies, and tools founded on the capacity of biological systems to produce and convert products. The still expanding field of biotechnology generates all the time new challenges for exploiting this knowledge and these skills. This introductory chapter summarizes the nature, width, requirements, and elements of the bioreactor design and operation concepts from a variety of angles, such as basic engineering principles, systems biology, and conceptual design theory, and how these and other perspectives reflects on what more needs to be accomplished beyond that and are to be mirrored in the chapters of this book.