Chapter 2 - Numerical simulation and application of photofermentative bio-hydrogen production system

Abstract

In view of the complexity of biological hydrogen production reaction system, which involves biological reactions, chemical reactions, physical and chemical properties of materials and organisms, as well as experimental research and theoretical analysis of complex fluid systems, more and more research studies have carried out numerical simulation based on mathematical models for biological hydrogen production. The flow law of multiphase flow comprising substrates and gas and its temperature field distribution are the key points of photosynthetic biological hydrogen production research, because of the complexity of multiphase flow itself and the biohydrogen production reaction process, using numerical simulation method to study photosynthetic biological hydrogen production system continuous flow field and temperature field distribution, not only can reduce the experiment cost, but also can obtain a lot of information that cannot get from experimental research. This chapter mainly takes the photofermentative biohydrogen production system (PBHPS) with baffle plate as the object and starts from the numerical simulation of the continuous hydrogen-producing process, the characteristics of matter flow, and the step-by-step rules of temperature change in the continuous operation of the baffle plate PBHPS. The boundary conditions and numerical models of the flow and temperature fields of the continuous PBHPS were established. The influence of different factors on the distribution of flow field and temperature field of photofermentative system was also investigated.