Editing Bioreactor (section)

=== Operational stages in a bio-process ===
A bioprocess is composed mainly of three stages&mdash;upstream processing, bioreaction, and downstream processing&mdash;to convert raw material to finished product.<ref>{{Citation|last1=Rosser|first1=J.|title=10 - Bioreactor processes for maturation of 3D bioprinted tissue|date=2018-01-01|url=http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/B9780081011034000107|work=3D Bioprinting for Reconstructive Surgery|pages=191–215|editor-last=Thomas|editor-first=Daniel J.|publisher=Woodhead Publishing|language=en|isbn=978-0-08-101103-4|access-date=2020-12-14|last2=Thomas|first2=D. J.|editor2-last=Jessop|editor2-first=Zita M.|editor3-last=Whitaker|editor3-first=Iain S.}}</ref>

The raw material can be of biological or non-biological origin. It is first converted to a more suitable form for processing. This is done in an upstream processing step which involves chemical hydrolysis, preparation of liquid medium, separation of particulate, air purification and many other preparatory operations.{{citation needed|date=October 2019}}

After the upstream processing step, the resulting feed is transferred to one or more bioreaction stages. The biochemical reactors or bioreactors form the base of the bioreaction step. This step mainly consists of three operations, namely, production of [[biomass]], metabolite biosynthesis and biotransformation.{{citation needed|date=October 2019}}

Finally, the material produced in the bioreactor must be further processed in the downstream section to convert it into a more useful form. The downstream process mainly consists of physical separation operations which include solid liquid separation, [[adsorption]], [[Liquid–liquid extraction|liquid-liquid extraction]], [[distillation]], [[drying]] etc.<ref name=":0">{{Cite book|title=CHEMICAL PROCESS MODELLING AND COMPUTER SIMULATION|last=Jana|first=AMIYA K.|publisher=PHI Learning Pvt. Ltd.|year=2011}}{{page needed|date=October 2019}}</ref>