is located adjacent to the vessel receiving station 42 to control the temperature of the vessel and in particular the cell culture solution 106 in the body portion 102 within the receiving station a motor 46 is driveable to turn a drive belt 48 and a drive element 50 that is connected to the drive input 166 by a pin 52 to transfer rotational motion to the stirrer 160 the fluids module 150 in addition to the gas input line 132 to the sparge tube 130 includes a further gas line 136 gas line 136 is a second input line connected to a port 137 through the lid portion 110 for delivery of gases into the headspace 108 this input line 136 may also include a filter not shown the fluids module 150 may be respectively connectable to o 2 n 2 and co 2 gas supplies for selective controlled delivery of those gases alone or in combination to the vessel via the input lines 132 and 136 referring in particular to fig5 the lid portion 110 includes an arcuate groove 190 in a lower surface thereof the groove 190 extends circumferentially around approximately 250 u00b0 of the perimeter of the lid portion from a first end 192 to a second end 194 the groove 190 sits on top of a flat surface 117 on the lip 116 of the vessel body portion 102 to define a circumferentially arranged conduit 196 see fig2 a at the first end 192 of the groove there is an enlarged opening 193 that provides a fluid communication with the vessel chamber 104 for the outlet passage of fluids evaporated from the headspace 108 into the conduit 196 an outlet.