ABSTRACT Mixing in an anaerobic digester keeps the solids in suspension and homogenizes the incom... more ABSTRACT Mixing in an anaerobic digester keeps the solids in suspension and homogenizes the incoming feed with the active microbial community of the digester content. Experimental investigations have shown that the mixing mode and mixing intensity have direct effects on the biogas yield even though there are conflicting views on mixing design. This review analyzes and presents different methods to evaluate the mixing in a digester (chemical and radioactive tracers and laboratory analysis), tools for digester design (computational fluid dynamics and kinetic modeling) and current research on the effects of mixing on the anaerobic digestion process. Empirical data on experiments comparing different mixing regimes have been reviewed from both a technical and microbial standpoint with a focus both on full scale digesters and in lab-scale evaluations. Lower mixing intensity or uneven mixing in the anaerobic digestion process can be beneficial during the startup phase to allow for methanogenic biomass growth and alleviate process instability problems. Intermittent mixing has been shown to be able to yield a similar gas production as continuous mixing but with the possibility to reduce the maintenance and energy demands of the process. Problems often experienced with experimental design include the effect of mixing on the solids retention time, and measurement of steady state gas production because of startup instabilities. Further research should be aimed at studying the effects of mixing on a chemical and microbial level and on the different stages of anaerobic digestion (hydrolysis, acidogenesis, acetogenesis and methanogenesis). The focus should be on the effects of mixing on a multiple stage digestion process and also finding new methods to evaluate the effects of mixing in the one stage digestion process rather than evaluating a wider range of mixing modes, intensities and substrates.
ABSTRACT Mixing in an anaerobic digester keeps the solids in suspension and homogenizes the incom... more ABSTRACT Mixing in an anaerobic digester keeps the solids in suspension and homogenizes the incoming feed with the active microbial community of the digester content. Experimental investigations have shown that the mixing mode and mixing intensity have direct effects on the biogas yield even though there are conflicting views on mixing design. This review analyzes and presents different methods to evaluate the mixing in a digester (chemical and radioactive tracers and laboratory analysis), tools for digester design (computational fluid dynamics and kinetic modeling) and current research on the effects of mixing on the anaerobic digestion process. Empirical data on experiments comparing different mixing regimes have been reviewed from both a technical and microbial standpoint with a focus both on full scale digesters and in lab-scale evaluations. Lower mixing intensity or uneven mixing in the anaerobic digestion process can be beneficial during the startup phase to allow for methanogenic biomass growth and alleviate process instability problems. Intermittent mixing has been shown to be able to yield a similar gas production as continuous mixing but with the possibility to reduce the maintenance and energy demands of the process. Problems often experienced with experimental design include the effect of mixing on the solids retention time, and measurement of steady state gas production because of startup instabilities. Further research should be aimed at studying the effects of mixing on a chemical and microbial level and on the different stages of anaerobic digestion (hydrolysis, acidogenesis, acetogenesis and methanogenesis). The focus should be on the effects of mixing on a multiple stage digestion process and also finding new methods to evaluate the effects of mixing in the one stage digestion process rather than evaluating a wider range of mixing modes, intensities and substrates.
Exploiting the full biogas potential of some types of biomass is challenging. The complex structu... more Exploiting the full biogas potential of some types of biomass is challenging. The complex structures of lignocellulosic biomass are difficult to break down and thus require longer retention times for the nutrients to become biologically available. It is possible to increase the digestibility of the substrate by pre-treating the material before digestion. This paper explores a pre-treatment of ley crop silage that uses electrical fields, known as electroporation (EP). Different settings of the EP equipment were tested, and the results were analyzed using a batch digestion setup. The results show that it is possible to increase the biogas yield with 16 % by subjecting the substrates to 65 pulses at a field strength of 96 kV/cm corresponding to a total energy input of 259 Wh/kg volatile solid (VS). However, at 100 pulses, a lower field strength of 48 kV/cm and the same total energy input, no effects of the treatment were observed. The energy balance of the EP treatment suggests that th...
Mixing inside an anaerobic digester is often continuous and is not actively controlled. The selec... more Mixing inside an anaerobic digester is often continuous and is not actively controlled. The selected mixing regime can however affect both gas production and the energy efficiency of the biogas plant. This study aims to evaluate these effects and compare three different mixing regimes, 150 RPM and 25 RPM continuous mixing and minimally intermittent mixing for both digestion of fresh substrate and post-digestion of the organic fraction of municipal solid waste. The results show that a lower mixing intensity leads to a higher biogas production rate and higher total biogas production in both cases. 25 RPM continuous mixing and minimally intermittent mixing resulted in similar biogas production after process stabilization, while 150 RPM continuous mixing resulted in lower production throughout the experiment. The lower gas production at 150 RPM could not be explained by the inhibition of volatile fatty acids. Cumulative biogas production until day 31 was 295 ± 2.9, 317 ± 1.9 and 304 ± 2.8N ml/g VS added during digestion of fresh feed and 113 ± 1.3, 134 ± 1.1 and 130 ± 2.3N ml/g VS added during post digestion for the 150 RPM, 25 RPM and minimally mixed intensities respectively. As well as increasing gas production, optimal mixing can improve the energy efficiency of the anaerobic digestion process.
Waste water from a biogas process is often recirculated and mixed with the incoming organic mater... more Waste water from a biogas process is often recirculated and mixed with the incoming organic material to produce a feed for the digester. The dry matter (DM) content of the final mixture should be as high as possible to maximise the capacity of the plant without exceeding the capability of the pumps. This means that the DM content of the
All over the world there is a strong interest and also potential for biogas production from organ... more All over the world there is a strong interest and also potential for biogas production from organic residues as well as from different crops. However, to be commercially competitive with other types of fuels, efficiency improvements of the biogas production process are needed. In this paper, results of improvements studies done on a full scale co-digestion plant are presented.
Previous studies on substrates for biogas production have shown that different types of pre-treat... more Previous studies on substrates for biogas production have shown that different types of pre-treatments make the material more accessible for microbial degradation by breaking down the complex structure of the organic material, thereby increasing their potential for gas production. In this paper, two different mechanical pre-treatment apparatus, i.e. a Grubben deflaker (Gd) and a Krima disperser (Kd), were tested in a full scale setup to evaluate their effects on ley crop silage. The treatments were investigated with regard to their effects on particle size, methane potential, capacity and energy balance. The results after 115 days of incubation in a batch assay show that methane production increased by 59% and 43% respectively after grinding with Gd and Kd. In both treatments, 90% of the ley crop was ground to particles of less than 2 mm and more than 50% of the sample was reduced to particles smaller than 0.125 mm. The energy balance was positive for Gd and around the break-even point for Kd. Analysis of the setup showed that Kd had almost twice the capacity of the Gd. If installed in the co-digestion biogas plant Växtkraft in Västerås, Sweden, the Gd and Kd could increase annual biogas yields by 790 MW h and 585 MW h respectively.
ABSTRACT Mixing in an anaerobic digester keeps the solids in suspension and homogenizes the incom... more ABSTRACT Mixing in an anaerobic digester keeps the solids in suspension and homogenizes the incoming feed with the active microbial community of the digester content. Experimental investigations have shown that the mixing mode and mixing intensity have direct effects on the biogas yield even though there are conflicting views on mixing design. This review analyzes and presents different methods to evaluate the mixing in a digester (chemical and radioactive tracers and laboratory analysis), tools for digester design (computational fluid dynamics and kinetic modeling) and current research on the effects of mixing on the anaerobic digestion process. Empirical data on experiments comparing different mixing regimes have been reviewed from both a technical and microbial standpoint with a focus both on full scale digesters and in lab-scale evaluations. Lower mixing intensity or uneven mixing in the anaerobic digestion process can be beneficial during the startup phase to allow for methanogenic biomass growth and alleviate process instability problems. Intermittent mixing has been shown to be able to yield a similar gas production as continuous mixing but with the possibility to reduce the maintenance and energy demands of the process. Problems often experienced with experimental design include the effect of mixing on the solids retention time, and measurement of steady state gas production because of startup instabilities. Further research should be aimed at studying the effects of mixing on a chemical and microbial level and on the different stages of anaerobic digestion (hydrolysis, acidogenesis, acetogenesis and methanogenesis). The focus should be on the effects of mixing on a multiple stage digestion process and also finding new methods to evaluate the effects of mixing in the one stage digestion process rather than evaluating a wider range of mixing modes, intensities and substrates.
ABSTRACT Mixing in an anaerobic digester keeps the solids in suspension and homogenizes the incom... more ABSTRACT Mixing in an anaerobic digester keeps the solids in suspension and homogenizes the incoming feed with the active microbial community of the digester content. Experimental investigations have shown that the mixing mode and mixing intensity have direct effects on the biogas yield even though there are conflicting views on mixing design. This review analyzes and presents different methods to evaluate the mixing in a digester (chemical and radioactive tracers and laboratory analysis), tools for digester design (computational fluid dynamics and kinetic modeling) and current research on the effects of mixing on the anaerobic digestion process. Empirical data on experiments comparing different mixing regimes have been reviewed from both a technical and microbial standpoint with a focus both on full scale digesters and in lab-scale evaluations. Lower mixing intensity or uneven mixing in the anaerobic digestion process can be beneficial during the startup phase to allow for methanogenic biomass growth and alleviate process instability problems. Intermittent mixing has been shown to be able to yield a similar gas production as continuous mixing but with the possibility to reduce the maintenance and energy demands of the process. Problems often experienced with experimental design include the effect of mixing on the solids retention time, and measurement of steady state gas production because of startup instabilities. Further research should be aimed at studying the effects of mixing on a chemical and microbial level and on the different stages of anaerobic digestion (hydrolysis, acidogenesis, acetogenesis and methanogenesis). The focus should be on the effects of mixing on a multiple stage digestion process and also finding new methods to evaluate the effects of mixing in the one stage digestion process rather than evaluating a wider range of mixing modes, intensities and substrates.
Exploiting the full biogas potential of some types of biomass is challenging. The complex structu... more Exploiting the full biogas potential of some types of biomass is challenging. The complex structures of lignocellulosic biomass are difficult to break down and thus require longer retention times for the nutrients to become biologically available. It is possible to increase the digestibility of the substrate by pre-treating the material before digestion. This paper explores a pre-treatment of ley crop silage that uses electrical fields, known as electroporation (EP). Different settings of the EP equipment were tested, and the results were analyzed using a batch digestion setup. The results show that it is possible to increase the biogas yield with 16 % by subjecting the substrates to 65 pulses at a field strength of 96 kV/cm corresponding to a total energy input of 259 Wh/kg volatile solid (VS). However, at 100 pulses, a lower field strength of 48 kV/cm and the same total energy input, no effects of the treatment were observed. The energy balance of the EP treatment suggests that th...
Mixing inside an anaerobic digester is often continuous and is not actively controlled. The selec... more Mixing inside an anaerobic digester is often continuous and is not actively controlled. The selected mixing regime can however affect both gas production and the energy efficiency of the biogas plant. This study aims to evaluate these effects and compare three different mixing regimes, 150 RPM and 25 RPM continuous mixing and minimally intermittent mixing for both digestion of fresh substrate and post-digestion of the organic fraction of municipal solid waste. The results show that a lower mixing intensity leads to a higher biogas production rate and higher total biogas production in both cases. 25 RPM continuous mixing and minimally intermittent mixing resulted in similar biogas production after process stabilization, while 150 RPM continuous mixing resulted in lower production throughout the experiment. The lower gas production at 150 RPM could not be explained by the inhibition of volatile fatty acids. Cumulative biogas production until day 31 was 295 ± 2.9, 317 ± 1.9 and 304 ± 2.8N ml/g VS added during digestion of fresh feed and 113 ± 1.3, 134 ± 1.1 and 130 ± 2.3N ml/g VS added during post digestion for the 150 RPM, 25 RPM and minimally mixed intensities respectively. As well as increasing gas production, optimal mixing can improve the energy efficiency of the anaerobic digestion process.
Waste water from a biogas process is often recirculated and mixed with the incoming organic mater... more Waste water from a biogas process is often recirculated and mixed with the incoming organic material to produce a feed for the digester. The dry matter (DM) content of the final mixture should be as high as possible to maximise the capacity of the plant without exceeding the capability of the pumps. This means that the DM content of the
All over the world there is a strong interest and also potential for biogas production from organ... more All over the world there is a strong interest and also potential for biogas production from organic residues as well as from different crops. However, to be commercially competitive with other types of fuels, efficiency improvements of the biogas production process are needed. In this paper, results of improvements studies done on a full scale co-digestion plant are presented.
Previous studies on substrates for biogas production have shown that different types of pre-treat... more Previous studies on substrates for biogas production have shown that different types of pre-treatments make the material more accessible for microbial degradation by breaking down the complex structure of the organic material, thereby increasing their potential for gas production. In this paper, two different mechanical pre-treatment apparatus, i.e. a Grubben deflaker (Gd) and a Krima disperser (Kd), were tested in a full scale setup to evaluate their effects on ley crop silage. The treatments were investigated with regard to their effects on particle size, methane potential, capacity and energy balance. The results after 115 days of incubation in a batch assay show that methane production increased by 59% and 43% respectively after grinding with Gd and Kd. In both treatments, 90% of the ley crop was ground to particles of less than 2 mm and more than 50% of the sample was reduced to particles smaller than 0.125 mm. The energy balance was positive for Gd and around the break-even point for Kd. Analysis of the setup showed that Kd had almost twice the capacity of the Gd. If installed in the co-digestion biogas plant Växtkraft in Västerås, Sweden, the Gd and Kd could increase annual biogas yields by 790 MW h and 585 MW h respectively.
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Papers by Johan Lindmark