Bioreactor with Segmented Loading and Unloading Gates
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing bioreactors face challenges in reducing the risk of contamination of used biomass with epidemics and phytohygienic pathogens during discharge, which complicates composting and requires additional care to ensure safety.
Innovation Solution
A bioreactor design featuring a 'clean' unloading gate and an 'unclean' loading gate, with thermophilic process control, allows for spatial separation of loading and unloading zones, and hydraulic actuation of gates to simplify operations and prevent contamination, while the prefabricated garage structure reduces production costs.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Device complexity
If a single gate is used for both loading and unloading biomass, then device complexity is reduced, but the risk of contamination of used biomass with epidemics and phytohygienic pathogens increases
Solution Approach 1:
The bioreactor is divided into two distinct zones: a loading zone with an unloading gate and a fermentation zone with a loading gate. This spatial segmentation prevents cross-contamination between fresh and used biomass, eliminating the need for a single shared gate while reducing contamination risk.
Solution Approach 2:
The unloading gate is extracted from the fermentation zone and positioned in the loading zone. This allows used biomass to be discharged through a separate opening that does not come into contact with fresh biomass, effectively removing the contamination pathway while maintaining operational simplicity.
2Object-affected harmful factors
If thermophilic process control is used to reduce contamination risk, then phytohygienic safety is improved, but energy consumption increases due to higher temperature maintenance
Solution Approach 1:
The bioreactor utilizes the exothermic heat generated by thermophilic fermentation processes to maintain the required temperature range of 50-60°C. The metabolic activity of microorganisms breaking down organic matter produces sufficient heat to sustain thermophilic conditions without requiring external energy input for heating, thus converting the potentially harmful high temperature into a beneficial self-sustaining process.
Applied Scientific Principles
This section explains which scientific principles are used to turn an abstract innovation direction into a practical engineering solution.
Function Achieved in This Case
This design significantly reduces the risk of contamination, simplifies biomass handling, and enables quasi-continuous biogas production with less care required for composting, as the used biomass is rendered harmless by thermophilic conditions, facilitating safer and more efficient composting.
Implementation Method 1
the production of biogas is interrupted for loading the bioreactor with fresh biomass and for unloading the used biomass and the gate for loading and unloading is opened
Implementation Method 2
If the biogas is already being produced in the thermophilic range (temperature > 55°C), less care must be taken in the subsequent composting of the used biomass
Implementation Method 3
The loading and unloading of the reactor vessel is further simplified by the gates occupying the entire cross section - claim 2. The construction of the reactor vessel in the manner of a prefabricated garage reduces the production costs for the reactor vessel - claim 3. The hydraulic actuation of the two gates and their design as flaps simplifies the loading and unloading of the reactor vessel - claims 4 and 5
Data Source
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AI summary
The invention relates to a bioreactor for methanizing biomass, a biogas plant having a plurality of such bioreactors, and a method for operating such a bioreactor. Because the elongated reactor vessel comprises a loading gate and an unloading gate, which are arranged at opposite ends of the elongated reactor vessel, it is possible to remove consumed biomass, which is harmless in terms of epidemiologic hygiene and plant hygiene due to thermophilic process control during the fermentation, from the reactor vessel through the unloading gate and to feed said consumed biomass directly to the composting process. The bioreactor thus has a "clean" unloading gate and an "unclean" loading gate.