Mass transport for mixed co-culture applications in a perfusion bioreactor partially filled with a porous layer

A simplified analysis is carried out to derive the analytical solution of the mass transfer equation in a microchannel bioreactor, which has a porous wall for the co-culture of two types of cells distributed randomly and uniformly. Based on the analysis, a group of dimensionless parameters is proposed, which can be applied to correlate the numerical data and characterize the mass transfer in the bioreactor. The normalized numerical data, for the concentration at the porous-fluid interface and concentration difference between the interface and the base, show satisfactory correlation when presented as a function of the effective distance parameter. Two cell culture examples are presented to demonstrate the general applications of the correlated results in the design of a co-culture microchannel bioreactor with a porous wall