Recently, a domestic bio-equipment enterprise, in collaboration with the State Key Laboratory of Food Science and Technology at Jiangnan University, has introduced a sterile and energy-efficient stirring paddle specifically designed for the biopharmaceutical sector. Featuring a dead-angle-free structural design, food-grade sterile coating, and low-energy drive technology, the device tackles long-standing industry issues such as “incomplete cleaning, high energy consumption, and contamination risk” in bioprocess fermentation. It offers crucial equipment support for sterile applications such as vaccine production and probiotic fermentation, while meeting the technical requirements of laboratory reactors dedicated to biopharmaceutical processes.

　　According to Professor Zhou Ming, the project lead from Jiangnan University, fermentation experiments in biopharmaceuticals—such as recombinant protein vaccines and microbial-based drug production—demand extremely high standards for sterility and mixing homogeneity. Traditional stirring paddles tend to have hard-to-clean areas including shaft seals and blade connections, where microbial growth can lead to batch contamination. Moreover, to ensure proper mixing of high-viscosity fermentation broths (e.g., mycelial culture fluids), high-power drives are often required, accounting for over 45% of the reactor’s total energy consumption. This not only raises experimental costs but may also cause local overheating that compromises biological activity.

　　The newly developed stirring paddle achieves dual breakthroughs in structure and technology: its “seamless one-piece blade” design eliminates joint connections between the blade and shaft, while rounded blade edges remove all cleaning dead angles. The blade surface is coated with a medical-grade nano-silica and PEEK (polyether ether ketone) composite layer, which withstands high-temperature sterilization at 135°C (meeting GMP sterile standards) and reduces material adhesion by 92% compared to conventional stainless-steel blades. The drive system incorporates a permanent magnet synchronous motor and vector frequency conversion technology, cutting energy consumption by 32% compared to traditional asynchronous motors under the same stirring intensity, with operating noise below 55 dB.

　　In practical tests using the stirring paddle with a specialized biopharmaceutical reactor, all 10 consecutive batches in a COVID-19 vaccine adjuvant emulsification process met sterility standards—a 18 percentage-point improvement over conventional paddles. In high-density probiotic fermentation, improved mixing homogeneity increased cell density from 1.2×10¹⁰ CFU/mL to 1.8×10¹⁰ CFU/mL, while reducing stirring system energy use by 30% and shortening the fermentation cycle by 12%.

　　“ ‘Sterility’ and ‘energy efficiency’ are central to upgrading laboratory equipment in the biopharmaceutical field, and this stirring paddle is designed to meet both demands,” stated Professor Zhou Ming. The device has already passed sterformance certification from the China Pharmaceutical Equipment Engineering Association and will be used in pilot-scale vaccine development labs under partnerships with five biopharmaceutical companies, including Beijing Kexing and Shanghai RAAS. The next phase involves developing an integrated sterile control system linking the stirring paddle and reactor, enabling real-time adjustment of stirring parameters and fermentation conditions. A prototype is expected to be ready for testing by early 2026.