Decoding cultured meat manufacturing: a full process model to identify scale-up bottlenecks

Despite growing interest in cultured meat, scaling its production from laboratory systems remains challenging. Its industrial translation is constrained by a lack of process-level models and validated engineering data.

In this study, we developed a process model for animal cell biomass production in suspension batch culture using SuperPro Designer v12. The model describes suspension-based cell proliferation to produce unstructured biomass without microcarriers and excludes cell differentiation, tissue maturation, or structured tissue formation. It integrates media preparation, sequential cell expansion up to a 20,000 L stirred-tank reactor, downstream clarification and washing, extrusion, and supporting utilities into a single flowsheet. Unit operations were parameterized using literature-derived assumptions from mammalian suspension culture, enabling complete mass and energy balances throughout the system.

The baseline model assumes a maximum cell density of 5 × 10⁷ cells/mL, and yields ~2,000 kg of biomass per 30.7-day batch. Media preparation and sterilization, cleaning-in-place- and cooling-related utility demand, and cell expansion performance emerged as major scale-up bottlenecks. Scale-out simulation revealed disproportionally high utility and cultivation time demands relative to production output. Waste and utility streams, primarily depleted medium, cleaning-in-place effluents, and cooling demand, emerge as critical targets for sustainability assessment and valorization.

The model is not intended as a final process design but as a reference framework: it makes assumptions explicit, provides reproducible balances, and supports comparative scenario analysis. This framework enables systematic evaluation of scalable cultivated biomass production concepts, highlights technical potential and infrastructure requirements, and helps prevent misdirected investments by allowing process configurations to be assessed before industrial implementation.