A shaking vessel with "current pole", which is a center pole installed at the bottom, had shorter mixing time than a shaking vessel with a cone at the bottom. The mass transfer rate on the suspended particles was also measured in the shaking vessel where ion-exchange resin beads were used as the suspended particles. The dependence of the solid-liquid mass transfer coefficient on the circulating frequency changed at the critical circulating frequency for complete suspension NJr For a circulating frequency higher than NJs, the mass transfer coefficient was correlated with the power consumption per unit volume, regardless of presence or not of the current pole.Le temps de melange dans un rCservoir oscillant muni d'un dCflecteur de courant (qui est une tige placCe au fond du rCservoir) est plus court que pour un rCservoir oscillant muni d'un cane install6 sur le fond. Le taux de transfert de niatikre des particules en suspension a Ct C mesure dans le rCservoir oscillant pour des billes de rbsine Cchangeuses d'ions. La dCpendance du coefficient de transfert de matibre solides-liquide par rapport B la vitesse de circulation change B la vitesse de circulation critique N . pour une suspension compkte. Pour une vitesse de circulation plus grande que NJs, le coefficient de transfert de mati&e a CtC corrClC B la consommation d'knergie volumique, en prCsence ou en l'absence de dkflecteur de courant.Keywords: mixing, shaking vessel, mass transfer, bioreactor, current pole.igh shear stress around the agitated impeller is not H acceptable to cell culture in stirred bioreactors. Nakashimada et al. (1995Nakashimada et al. ( , 1996 reported that the observed low efficiency of the regeneration of hairy root in an air-lift type bioreactor is attributed to bursting of bubble on the liquid surface. The resulting shear stress inflicted significant damage on the plantlet reducing the regeneration from the hairy root tips. Kato et al. (1995Kato et al. ( , 1996a reported that mixing in shaking vessel can eliminated the high shear stress in the reactor. Honda et al. (1997) obtained good results for mass-production of the regenerated plantlet with a shaking type bioreactor.In a previous paper (Kato et al., 1995), we observed that particles in the shaking vessel gathered at the center of the vessel bottom at a low circulating frequency, due to the generation of a stagnant point at the vessel bottom. To improve particle dispersion in impeller mixing, a cone is usually installed at the vessel bottom (Chudacek, 1985). In the previous paper (Kato et al., 1996b), "current pole", which is a center pole installed at the shaking vessel bottom as shown in Figure 1, was more effective than the cone for mixing in a shaking vessel. Effects of the pole on flow patterns, mixing time, and dispersion were also examined experimentally (Kato et al., 1996b). We applied the shaking vessel with the current pole to bioreactors for plant cells, and obtained better plantlet regeneration than that in an air-lift type bioreactor and a shaking vessel type bioreactor w...