Sartorius Biostat STR vs Thermo HyPerforma vs Cytiva Xcellerex: Single-Use Bioreactor Comparison

Key differences at a glance

• Sartorius Biostat STR: top-driven centre-line shaft with 2× 3-blade segment impellers (or a 6-blade disk plus a 3-blade segment), 50–2,000 L at a 4:1 turndown, Flexsafe STR bags, optional embedded Repligen XCell ATF module, Biobrain automation.
• Thermo HyPerforma S.U.B.: single off-centre 3-blade pitched impeller on an overhead drive, 50–2,000 L at a 5:1 turndown, BioProcess Container bags in Aegis 5-14 film; the separate DynaDrive line comes in 5, 50, 500, 3,000 and 5,000 L with up to 20:1 turndown.
• Cytiva Xcellerex XDR: seal-less, bottom-mounted magnetic drive with a pitched-blade impeller offset 15° from the XDR-200 upwards, XDR-10 to XDR-2000, 5:1 turndown from XDR-200 to XDR-2000, combined micro and macro sparge elements, optional perfusion loading door at 1,000 and 2,000 L, Xcellerex APS perfusion system up to 500 L.
• Best for scaling past 2,000 L: Thermo HyPerforma DynaDrive (3,000 L and 5,000 L, the largest catalogue sizes of the three). ABEC’s custom CSR line goes up to 6,000 L.
• Best for CDMO tech transfer: whichever platform your CDMO already runs. Large CDMOs often run several; WuXi Biologics lists all three plus ABEC CSR.

Side-by-side comparison

Values are taken from the vendors’ current documents: the Biostat STR Generation 3 and Flexsafe STR datasheet, the HyPerforma S.U.B. brochure, the DynaDrive brochure and 500 L DynaDrive data sheet, and the Xcellerex XDR-50 to XDR-2000 data file, plus the studies listed under Resources. Mixing-time and kLa figures were measured under different conditions by different authors and are not a like-for-like benchmark. Specifications re-checked October 4, 2026; your current-datasheet specifications take precedence. See the single-use bioreactor selection guide for the stirred-tank vs wave vs fixed-bed decision upstream of vendor choice.

Sartorius Biostat STR in detail

The Sartorius Biostat STR, currently in its Generation 3 platform, is Sartorius’s single-use stirred-tank bioreactor for mammalian cell culture across process development, clinical manufacturing and commercial production. The family spans five vessel sizes (50, 200, 500, 1,000 and 2,000 L maximum working volume, 12.5 L to 2,000 L in practice) and pairs with Flexsafe STR bags whose geometry is held constant across scales: the Sartorius datasheet gives a bag H/D of 1.8 and an impeller-to-bag diameter ratio of 0.38 at every size.

How it works

The Biostat STR has two impellers on a centre-line shaft driven by a top-mounted motor: either two 3-blade segment impellers or a 6-blade disk impeller at the bottom with a 3-blade segment impeller above it. The Flexsafe STR bag sits in a double-walled AISI 304L stainless-steel holder that controls temperature from 8 °C above the cooling-water temperature up to 40 °C, with optional load cells. Gas is delivered through a ring sparger, a microsparger or a combi-sparger, at up to 0.1 vvm through the microsparger and 0.2 vvm in total. Sartorius-authored characterisation by De Wilde et al. (2014, BioProcess International) reports mixing times below 30 s at every scale from 2 L to 2,000 L (about 20 s at 2,000 L), kLa values above 10 h−¹ at all scales, and up to 40 h−¹ at 2,000 L with the microsparger; an earlier Sartorius conference paper by Dreher et al. (2013, BMC Proceedings) reached the same mixing-time result for the 50 L to 2,000 L family. Since August 2023 the Biostat STR has been available with an embedded Repligen XCell ATF module for intensified fed-batch and perfusion, controlled from the Biobrain automation platform.

When Biostat STR wins

Sartorius wins when your process already sits on a Sartorius scale-down path or at a CDMO that runs Biostat STR. Because the bag geometry is the same from 50 L to 2,000 L, and Sartorius positions the Ambr 250 as the scale-down model for the same family, a process developed on a Biostat STR PD line transfers to the same geometry at commercial scale. Large CDMOs often run more than one vendor: WuXi Biologics lists Sartorius STR, Thermo S.U.B., Cytiva Xcellerex XDR and ABEC CSR bioreactors across its drug substance facilities, so ask your CDMO which platform your batches will actually run on. The embedded XCell ATF module also makes the Biostat STR the most integrated option for teams that need perfusion-based N-1 seed generation.

Thermo HyPerforma S.U.B. and DynaDrive in detail

Thermo Fisher’s single-use bioreactor portfolio spans two related product families. The HyPerforma S.U.B. is the classic cylindrical single-use stirred tank, available at 50, 100, 250, 500, 1,000 and 2,000 L with a 5:1 turndown; Thermo still offers a 2:1 version. The HyPerforma DynaDrive is the newer platform built to raise mixing power and turndown. It uses an off-centre cuboid vessel and a drive train carrying several impellers, and spans 5, 50, 500, 3,000 and 5,000 L. Thermo describes the 5,000 L DynaDrive as the first 5,000 L S.U.B. on the market; ABEC’s custom CSR line goes larger, up to 6,000 L. Both families use BioProcess Container (BPC) bags in Thermo’s Aegis 5-14 film.

How it works

The classic HyPerforma S.U.B. has a single 3-blade pitched impeller mounted off-centre in the BPC. It couples through a bearing and seal assembly to an overhead motor, and Thermo credits the off-centre position for fast mixing without vortex formation. Liquid H/D is 1.5 at every size and the minimum working volume is 20% of maximum (10 L in the 50 L model, 400 L in the 2,000 L model). On the 1,000 L and 2,000 L sizes a pneumatic motor lift lowers or raises the motor, drive shaft and impeller so the same tank runs in either the 5:1 or the 2:1 position. Gas enters through a crossflow sparger, which Thermo uses for high kLa at low seed volumes, and a drilled-hole sparger for full-volume culture and CO₂ stripping. The HyPerforma S.U.B. brochure shows relative kLa and tip-speed curves but no absolute mixing-time or kLa values. The DynaDrive departs from the cylindrical archetype. The 500 L model, for example, carries three 2-blade modified pitched-blade impellers and a 2-blade sweep impeller for low volumes on one drive train, with a top drive and a bottom bearing, a dual drilled-hole and frit sparger, and an H/D of 2.5:1. Thermo states that the multiple impellers deliver more power input per unit volume (P/V) at reasonable rpm and tip speed. Turndown is 5:1 at 5 L, 10:1 at 50 L, 20:1 at 500 L, 12.5:1 at 3,000 L and 20:1 at 5,000 L, so the 5,000 L vessel can start at 250 L and be fed up to full volume, letting one vessel cover what would otherwise be a separate seed-train step. Thermo’s own economic claims are 41% lower cost per gram for a 5,000 L DynaDrive than its legacy S.U.B., and up to 25% lower production cost than other 5,000 L single-use bioreactors; treat both as vendor figures.

When HyPerforma wins

Thermo wins when the programme needs more than 2,000 L in a single single-use vessel from a standard catalogue. DynaDrive 3,000 L and 5,000 L are the largest standard sizes of the three vendors, and ABEC’s custom CSR is the main alternative above 2,000 L. If you want single-use disposables at that scale (for facility flexibility, faster changeover, or a lower cleaning validation burden), DynaDrive is the catalogue option. Its 10:1 to 20:1 turndown also makes it the strongest choice for consolidating a seed train. Thermo says HyPerforma S.U.B.s have been in use for nearly 20 years, and it also sells the HyPerforma Single-Use Fermentor (S.U.F.) for microbial work, for which it reports kLa above 600 h−¹. Separately, Thermo Fisher completed its acquisition of Solventum’s purification and filtration business on 1 September 2025, which adds filtration products to its bioproduction portfolio.

Cytiva Xcellerex XDR in detail

The Cytiva Xcellerex XDR single-use stirred-tank family originated with Xcellerex Inc., was acquired by GE Healthcare, and is now sold by Cytiva (part of Danaher). The XDR line spans XDR-10, XDR-50, XDR-200, XDR-500, XDR-1000 and XDR-2000 for cell culture. Turndown is 5:1 from the XDR-200 to the XDR-2000, 2:1 on the XDR-50, and about 2.2:1 on the XDR-10 (4.5 to 10 L). Cytiva also sells the newer Xcellerex X-platform bioreactors, launched at 50 L and 200 L with a 5:1 turndown, and in March 2025 added 500 L and 2,000 L X-platform sizes with features such as infrared-camera foam detection.

How it works

The XDR biocontainer has a seal-less, bottom-mounted impeller and sparger assembly that couples to a magnetic drive head in the vessel. The impeller is a pitched-blade type at 40° pitch, with three blades up to the XDR-1000 and four on the XDR-2000. On the XDR-200 to XDR-2000 it is offset 15° from centre (the XDR-10 and XDR-50 are centre-mounted), and a peer-reviewed study of the unbaffled XDR-200 found that the off-centre impeller suppresses vortex formation. Up to eight sparge elements sit in the impeller assembly, combining 2 µm and 20 µm porous discs with discs carrying 0.5 mm or 1 mm drilled holes, so the same biocontainer can micro-sparge for oxygen and macro-sparge for CO₂ removal; a CO₂ removal sparge tee is also available. DO and pH can be measured with conventional polarographic or optical DO probes and glass pH electrodes, or with single-use weld-in optical DO and pH sensors (see Hamilton VisiFerm vs PreSens optical DO/pH for the optical options). Peer-reviewed characterisation by Kreitmayer et al. (2022, Bioengineering) reports mixing times below 30 s and kLa up to 22.1 h−¹ for the XDR-10, concluding that it “provides hydrodynamic conditions which are well suited for the cultivation of animal cells”, and a companion study by Kreitmayer et al. (2022, Biochemical Engineering Journal) reports mixing below 30 s and kLa of 2 to 20 h−¹ for the XDR-200. An optional perfusion-specific biocontainer loading door accommodates cell retention devices on the 1,000 L and 2,000 L systems, which also have a semi-automatic biocontainer hoist. Control runs on the X-Station console with Figurate automation powered by AVEVA software and an Allen-Bradley PLC/PAC, or on Figurate automation for Emerson DeltaV.

When Xcellerex wins

Cytiva wins when the facility has standardised on Cytiva. The XDR sits alongside Cytiva’s downstream portfolio (MabSelect PrismA Protein A resin, ReadyMate aseptic connectors and ÄKTA ready single-use chromatography systems), so a site that already buys from Cytiva deals with one supplier for automation, consumables and service. The bottom-mounted magnetic drive needs no shaft seal through the biocontainer, and the 5:1 turndown from the XDR-200 to the XDR-2000 matches Thermo’s classic S.U.B. The optional perfusion loading door on the XDR-1000 and XDR-2000, and the Xcellerex Automated Perfusion System for the 50 L to 500 L sizes, give it purpose-built perfusion options.

Pros and cons

Sartorius Biostat STR

Thermo HyPerforma S.U.B. and DynaDrive

Cytiva Xcellerex XDR

Which vendor should you choose?

Pick based on the dominant constraint: CDMO tech-transfer risk, scale ceiling, downstream integration, or perfusion architecture.

Real-world use cases

How process teams typically converge on one vendor for a specific problem.

Cost and lifecycle considerations

Capital quotes for a fully instrumented 2,000 L line (vessel holder, control system, DO, pH, temperature and pressure measurement, temperature control unit) vary with the automation choice, sensor package and service terms, so compare like for like. Each vendor offers an Emerson DeltaV route (a Biostat STR Generation 3 version for DeltaV, Thermo’s G3 controllers with TruBio on DeltaV Live, and Cytiva’s Figurate for DeltaV), which helps if your site already standardises on DeltaV; Thermo also sells DynaDrive as open-architecture hardware for DeltaV, Allen-Bradley or Siemens control systems.

Bag consumables are the main recurring cost. Multiply the quoted bag price for your configuration (sensors, impeller, sparger, perfusion ports) by the planned batch count: 30 batches a year for 3 years is 90 bags per line. Add single-use sensor costs if they are not already built into the bag, or calibration and replacement costs for reusable probes.

Labour and QC cost tracks batch count and staffing model rather than the vendor. The single-use vs stainless-steel cost comparison and the Fermentation Economics Calculator let you model the full picture with your own quotes, including the point at which a stainless-steel facility becomes cheaper.

Vendor landscape

Beyond the big three, the single-use stirred-tank market includes several alternative and complementary vendors. MarketsandMarkets estimates that Sartorius, Danaher (Cytiva), Thermo Fisher and Merck together held 70–75% of the market in 2025; the remainder is fragmented.

Sartorius platform

• Biostat STR Generation 3: 50, 200, 500, 1,000 and 2,000 L; Sartorius’s single-use stirred tank for mammalian cell culture.
• Biostat STR Microbial: single-use microbial fermentor at 40 L working volume, for which Sartorius reports a kLa of 675 h−¹.
• Sartorius Ambr 250 / Ambr 15: automated micro-bioreactor systems for PD and cell-line screening, which Sartorius positions as scale-down models for the Biostat STR. See the Applikon vs Eppendorf vs Sartorius Ambr bench comparison for how they sit next to conventional bench bioreactors upstream of the Biostat STR.

Thermo Fisher platform

• HyPerforma S.U.B.: 50–2,000 L classic cylindrical single-use bioreactor with a 5:1 turndown (a 2:1 version is also offered).
• HyPerforma DynaDrive: 5, 50, 500, 3,000 and 5,000 L cuboid multi-impeller platform; Thermo describes the 5,000 L as the first 5,000 L S.U.B. on the market.
• HyPerforma S.U.F. (Single-Use Fermentor): 30 L and 300 L microbial fermentor with vendor-reported kLa above 600 h−¹.

Cytiva platform

• Xcellerex XDR: XDR-10 through XDR-2000 with a bottom-mounted magnetic drive and a 5:1 turndown from XDR-200 up; Xcellerex X-platform sizes at 50, 200, 500 and 2,000 L (500 L and 2,000 L added in March 2025).
• ReadyToProcess WAVE 25: rocking-motion single-use bioreactor to 25 L for seed train and small-scale cell therapy.
• iCELLis fixed-bed: fixed-bed bioreactor with up to 500 m² of surface area (iCELLis 500+) for adherent cell culture, particularly viral vectors.

Alternative vendors

• Merck Millipore Mobius: single-use bioreactor family from 3 L to 2,000 L.
• ABEC Custom Single Run (CSR): custom single-use bioreactors with working volumes up to 6,000 L (announced 2019), the largest single-use stirred tanks in this comparison.
• Getinge Applikon AppliFlex ST: lab-scale single-use stirred tanks at 500 mL, 3 L and 15 L (up to 12 L working volume), with a GMP version at 500 mL and 3 L.
• Eppendorf BioBLU c: single-use vessels from 100 mL to 40 L working volume (BioBLU 0.3c to 50c), popular in PD labs and academic settings.
• PBS Biotech: Vertical-Wheel single-use bioreactors from 0.1 L to 80 L working volume, aimed at cell therapy.

Related calculators and tools

Related articles

How this comparison was compiled

Every geometry, volume, turndown, mixing-time and kLa figure on this page was re-checked line by line on October 4, 2026 against the manufacturers’ current datasheets and brochures and against the studies listed below. Where a vendor does not publish a figure, the table says so rather than estimating one, and vendor performance and cost claims are labelled as such. Market figures come from published analyst reports, which disagree with each other, so we quote them as estimates and do not quote individual vendor shares, because we found no reliable public source for them. We also do not quote system or bag prices, because none of the three vendors publishes them.

Two limits are worth being explicit about. First, mixing time and kLa are not measured to a common standard across vendors: each publishes under its own working volume, sparger, tip speed and gassing conditions, so the numbers in the comparison table are indicative of each platform’s published performance rather than a like-for-like benchmark. Second, single-use platforms are revised frequently, and a figure that was current at publication can be superseded by a new bag or drive generation. Before making a purchasing decision, confirm the specification against the current datasheet for the exact configuration you are quoting.

This page is written and maintained by the BioProcess Tools editorial team. We sell no bioreactors and have no commercial relationship with Sartorius, Thermo Fisher or Cytiva. If you find a figure that is wrong or out of date, please tell us using the feedback control on this page or via the contact page, and cite the datasheet. Corrections are made and credited.

Resources and references

• De Wilde D, Dreher T, Zahnow C, Husemann U, Greller G, Adams T & Fenge C (2014). Superior Scalability of Single-Use Bioreactors. BioProcess International 12(9) supplement. Vendor-authored trade-journal characterisation (Sartorius Stedim Biotech) of Biostat STR mixing time (below 30 s from 2 L to 2,000 L, about 20 s at 2,000 L) and kLa (above 10 h−¹ at all scales, up to 40 h−¹ at 2,000 L with microsparger). Not peer reviewed; treat the figures as manufacturer data.
• Kreitmayer D et al. (2022). CFD-Based and Experimental Hydrodynamic Characterization of the Single-Use Bioreactor Xcellerex XDR-10. Bioengineering (Basel) 9(1):22. Peer-reviewed hydrodynamic and mass-transfer characterisation of the XDR-10: mixing below 30 s, kLa up to 22.1 h−¹.
• Kreitmayer D et al. (2022). Numerical and experimental characterization of the single-use bioreactor Xcellerex XDR-200. Biochemical Engineering Journal 177:108237. Peer-reviewed characterisation of the XDR-200: mixing below 30 s, kLa 2.0 to 20.0 h−¹, vortex suppressed by the off-centred impeller.
• Dreher T, Husemann U, Ruhl S, Greller G (2013). Design space definition for a stirred single-use bioreactor family from 50 to 2000 L scale. BMC Proceedings 7(Suppl 6):P55. Sartorius-authored conference paper on Biostat STR impeller configuration, geometry and mixing time.
• HyPerforma Single-Use Bioreactor (S.U.B.) Family Brochure (Thermo Fisher Scientific). Vendor brochure for the 50–2,000 L S.U.B. family: sizes, minimum volumes, H/D, impeller count, spargers and controllers. Gives no absolute kLa or mixing-time values.
• DynaDrive Single-Use Bioreactor Brochure (Thermo Fisher Scientific) and 500 L DynaDrive Data Sheet. Vendor documents for DynaDrive sizes, turndown ratios, impeller configuration and cost claims.
• Biostat STR Generation 3 Bioreactors and Flexsafe STR Bags, Product Datasheet (Sartorius). Vendor datasheet for sizes, working volumes, 4:1 turndown, bag geometry, spargers and sensors.
• Xcellerex XDR-50 to XDR-2000 Cell Culture Bioreactor Systems, Data File (Cytiva). Vendor data file for working volumes, turndown, impeller and sparger design, perfusion door and automation.
• MarketsandMarkets. Single-Use Bioreactors Market research insight. Analyst estimate of market size (USD 5.43 billion in 2026, 12.0% CAGR to 2031) and the 70–75% combined share of Sartorius, Danaher, Thermo Fisher and Merck in 2025.
• Grand View Research. Single-use Bioreactors Market Size report. Analyst estimate of USD 4.58 billion in 2024 and about 17% CAGR from 2025 to 2033.

Further reading

• Biostat STR Generation 3 Single-Use Bioreactor (Sartorius). Vendor product page for the 12.5–2,000 L working-volume range.
• Xcellerex XDR 50 to 2000 Single-Use Stirred-Tank Bioreactors (Cytiva). Vendor product page for the XDR platform.
• Bioreactor Preferences from an Outsourcing Perspective, Part I (Pharma Manufacturing, 2015). Survey of CDMO bioreactor preferences, stainless steel vs single-use.