Movable Bioreactor Packing for Press Juice Fermentation
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing bioreactors face challenges with insoluble or poorly soluble substances in press juice forming inaccessible sink layers, leading to inefficient fermentation and mixing of fresh and fermented press juice, which reduces biogas production efficiency.
Innovation Solution
The method involves partially removing and re-introducing packing elements in a bioreactor to prevent mixing, allowing insoluble substances to settle in thin layers accessible to microorganisms, while maintaining separate paths for fresh and fermented press juice, ensuring complete fermentation without mixing.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If packing elements are fixed in a bioreactor to provide colonization areas for bacteria, then bacterial immobilization is improved, but insoluble substances form inaccessible sink layers
Solution Approach 1:
The packing elements are made movable within the bioreactor, allowing them to shift positions dynamically. This enables the packing to maintain contact with settled insoluble substances while still providing colonization areas for bacteria, resolving the contradiction between immobilization and accessibility to sink layers
2Productivity
If fluidized bed reactors are used to avoid sink layer formation, then accessibility to insoluble substances is improved, but mixing of fresh and fermented press juice occurs
Solution Approach 1:
The bioreactor is divided into distinct zones: an upper zone for receiving fresh press juice and a lower zone for discharge. The movable packing elements are confined to the lower zone, allowing fluidization and movement to prevent sink layers without causing mixing between fresh and fermented press juice in the upper discharge zone
3Reliability
If fixed bed reactors are used with vertical flow channels, then bacterial colonization is improved, but sink layers form at the bottom requiring pumping back up
Solution Approach 1:
The movable packing elements automatically move themselves through the bioreactor using the flow of press juice and fermentation gases, eliminating the need for external pressing devices to transport packing elements. The system is self-regulating and requires no additional mechanical complexity
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 approach enhances biogas production by ensuring effective fermentation of insoluble substances and preventing the mixing of fresh and fermented press juice, thereby increasing the degradation rate and efficiency of the bioreactor process.
Implementation Method 1
the undissolved substances, in particular starch, settling on the surfaces of the packing in the form of evenly thin layers
Implementation Method 2
fermenting press juice produced from biomass in a bioreactor
Implementation Method 3
generating biogases by fermenting press juice
Data Source
Figure 1~2
Figure 3I~3III
AI summary
Producing biogas by fermentation of pressed juice produced from biomass in a bioreactor, comprises: (a) introducing the pressed juice in a bioreactor (10), which exhibits a filling material-packed bed; (b) withdrawing the fermented pressed juice from the bioreactor; (c) removing a partial amount (A, B, C, D) of the filling material from the surface of the bioreactor; (d) supplying the partial amount of the filling material in to the surface of the bioreactor, in which the pressed juice is introduced into the bioreactor; and (e) repeating the steps (c) and (d). Producing biogas by fermentation of pressed juice produced from biomass in a bioreactor, comprises: (a) introducing the pressed juice in a bioreactor (10), which exhibits a filling material-packed bed made from many filling materials; (b) withdrawing the fermented pressed juice from the bioreactor; (c) removing a partial amount (A, B, C, D) of the filling material from the surface of the bioreactor, in which the fermented pressed juice is withdrawn from the bioreactor; (d) supplying the partial amount of filling material in to the surface of the bioreactor, in which the pressed juice is introduced into the bioreactor; and (e) repeating the steps (c) and (d). The fed partial amount of the filling materials are applied to that surface of the filling material-packed bed, which is set against the flow direction of the pressed juice in the bioreactor.