Abstract
Biological methanation is an emerging Power-to-Gas technology that provides a flexible, efficient, and long-term storage system to address the renewable energy intermittency issue. However, scaling-up a biological methanation plant requires overcoming the bottleneck of H2 gas–liquid mass transfer. The current work demonstrates analytically, experimentally and numerically the importance of H2 mass transfer on CH4 purity and productivity. The influence of sparger design was investigated in a pilot-scale bubble column bioreactor. An increase of 265 % in kLa and subsequently 81 % in CH4 purity is obtained when a uniform porous plate is used over a 4-points porous sparger. Numerical simulation of the bioreactor was performed using a multiscale modeling approach coupling 1D and CFD models. The numerical simulations were validated satisfactorily by the experimental data. Parametric studies were also performed using the 1D model to reveal the impact of operating conditions on the bioprocess. An analytical solution for the productivity of biomethanation reactors at steady-state is proposed based on mass balances and provides new insights into biological methanation. It is found that any modification of operating parameters that improve H2 mass transfer, such as higher gas recirculation rate and smaller bubble size, leads to a better bioreactor performance.
Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Disclaimer: All third-party content on this website/platform is and will remain the property of their respective owners and is provided on "as is" basis without any warranties, express or implied. Use of third-party content does not indicate any affiliation, sponsorship with or endorsement by them. Any references to third-party content is to identify the corresponding services and shall be considered fair use under The CopyrightLaw.