The influence of the degree of back-mixing on hydrogen production in an anaerobic fixed-bed reactor

Autor(es)

Fontes Lima, Daniel Moureira ^[1] ; Zaiat, Marcelo ^[1]

Afiliação do(s) autor(es)

^[1] Univ Sao Paulo, EESC, Ctr Pesquisa Desenvolvimento & Inovacao Engn Ambi, LPB, BR-13563120 Sao Carlos, SP - Brazil

• Tipo de documento: Artigo Científico
• Fonte: INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF HYDROGEN ENERGY; v. 37, n. 12, p. 9630-9635, JUN 2012.
• Citações Web of Science: 33

Resumo

This paper reports on results obtained from experiments carried out in an acidogenic anaerobic reactor aiming at the optimization of hydrogen production by altering the degree of back-mixing. It was hypothesized that there is an optimum operating point that maximizes the hydrogen yield. Experiments were performed in a packed-bed bioreactor by covering a broad range of recycle ratios (R) and the optimum point was obtained for an R value of 0.6. In this operating condition the reactor behaved as 8 continuous stirred-tank reactors in series and the maximum yield was 4.22 mol H-2 mol sucrose(-1). Such optimum point was estimated by deriving a polynomial function fitted to experimental data and it was obtained as the conjugation of three factors related to the various degrees of back-mixing applied to the reactor: mass transfer from the bulk liquid to the biocatalyst, liquid-to-gas mass transfer and the kinetic behavior of irreversible reactions in series. Copyright (C) 2012, Hydrogen Energy Publications, LLC. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. (AU)

• Processo FAPESP: 09/15984-0 - Produção de bioenergia no tratamento de águas residuárias e adequação ambiental dos efluentes e resíduos gerados
• Beneficiário: Marcelo Zaiat
• Modalidade de apoio: Auxílio à Pesquisa - Temático