Anaerobic reactor

Abstract

An anaerobic reactor comprising two or more discrete reaction chambers arranged one above the other is disclosed. The reactor may be in the form of a tank separated into discrete chambers by means of solid members, or the reactor may be in the form of separate and stackable chambers. Additionally, the reactor may be a packed bed reactor, a fluidised bed reactor, or a hybrid reactor comprising at least one packed bed reaction chamber and at least one fluidised bed reaction chamber. Use of an anaerobic reactor according to the invention enables an increase in the yield of biogas that can be produced per unit area of land occupied by an anaerobic reactor. A method of producing biogas is also disclosed, the method comprising providing an anaerobic reactor according to the invention, providing input biomass, carrying out anaerobic digestion of the biomass in the reactor, and collecting the biogas produced.

Description

technical field [0001] The present invention relates to reactors for the anaerobic production of biogas (biogas), in particular to anaerobic reactors comprising more than one packed or fluidized bed or layer. Background technique [0002] Anaerobic digestion (anaerobic digestion) is a series of processes in which microorganisms break down biodegradable materials in the absence of oxygen. There are three main anaerobic digestion products: biogas, anaerobic digestate (digestate), and water. Biogas (biogas) produced by anaerobic digestion or fermentation of biodegradable materials consists mainly of methane and carbon dioxide. The methane in biogas can be burned to produce heat and electricity. Anaerobic digestate consists of the solid residue of the original feed that cannot be used by the microorganisms entering the digester. It also includes mineralized residue from dead bacteria inside the digestive tract. The water produced by the anaerobic digestion system comes from ...

AI Technical Summary

Problems solved by technology

However, this does not provide a satisfactory solution to the problem since the high concentration of volatile acids produced by acidogenic bacteria in the biomass creates an environment that is toxic to other anaerobic bacteria by lowering the pH

Consequently, there is a limit to the load that can be applied to the lower part of the reactor, and thus the volume of biogas that can be produced from a given reactor base area (that is, the area of ​​land occupied by the reactor)

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