Wolf, Schwarz, and Trinh won NASA “Inventor of the Year” honors for their innovation. In 1990, Anderson and Schwarz licensed patents for the rotating wall bioreactor technology and founded Synthecon Inc. in Houston, Texas, to commercialize the device.
The impeller, also known as agitator, is a key component of the bioreactor. It performs the important tasks of mixing, aeration, heat and mass transfer within the vessel.