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AMYBO

Pioreactor

The Pioreactor is an affordable, open source bioreactor built around a Raspberry Pi. When we surveyed the options in 2023 it was the one on our shortlist you could actually buy with a sensible lead time, it was clearly under active development, and its founder answered our questions. It has been our main research tool ever since, and most of what we’ve built is an extension of it.

  • The electroPioreactor adds electrolysis so hydrogen-oxidising bacteria can grow on hydrogen made in the vial. Its plugin runs it from the Pioreactor’s own web interface.
  • PioFlo turns a Pioreactor into a flow-through cell, so its software can control a fermenter of any size.
  • OpenValve is an affordable open source pinch valve for the tubing.
Two Pioreactors standing side by side on a desk, each with a foil-covered vial, one connected to a Raspberry Pi 400 keyboard computer
Our first two Pioreactors in 2023, during the control test. Photo: AMYBO, CC BY-SA 4.0.

Our fixes to Pioreactor’s software go back upstream through our fork. Kits come from LabCrafter in the UK and Pioreactor elsewhere. See also the experiments we ran on the first units, including the control test to check that two Pioreactors agree with each other.

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