Simulation of thermophilic hydrogen production in anaerobic reactors using Aspen Plus

• Grant number: 12/21917-7
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships abroad - Research Internship - Doctorate
• Start date: January 14, 2013
• End date: September 13, 2013
• Field of knowledge: Engineering - Sanitary Engineering - Water Supply and Wastewater Treatment
• Principal Investigator: Marcelo Zaiat
• Grantee: Adriana Ferreira Maluf Braga
• Supervisor: Knud Villy Christensen
• Host Institution: Escola de Engenharia de São Carlos (EESC). Universidade de São Paulo (USP). São Carlos , SP, Brazil
• Institution abroad: University of Southern Denmark (SDU), Denmark
• Associated to the scholarship: 10/05495-0 - Hydrogen production assessment in thermofilic anaerobic reactors, BP.DR

Abstract

The modelling and simulation of data are common practices in chemical engineering and processes, but there are few studies aimed at predicting the production of biogas, especially hydrogen, from anaerobic digestion. Since a long-term operation of UASB reactor (370 days) at increasing HRT - hydraulic retention time (12, 6 and 2) and operations of up-flow reactor with and without support material at different HRT (2 and 0.5) achieved continuous hydrogen production at thermophilic condition (55°C), it is proposed in this project to model the experimental data and simulate hydrogen production in Aspen Plus. This software enables the prediction of process behaviour and simulates systems from material and energy balances, thermodynamic equilibrium and rate equations, and the results can be used for process optimization and scale-up procedures. (AU)