Study of Heat Profile in Anaerobic Reactor by Forced Convection Using Heating Element

Lim, Kok Shie (2020) Study of Heat Profile in Anaerobic Reactor by Forced Convection Using Heating Element. Final Year Project (Bachelor), Tunku Abdul Rahman University College.

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Abstract

Anaerobic digestion is one common method to treat Palm Oil Mill Effluent (POME) in the industry. Anaerobic digestion is an attractive option for sustainable energy production to solve environmental and energy concerns. The optimal range of temperature inside the anaerobic reactor was taken as the main parameter for the design of digester because it can maximize the reaction of the bacteria and the mixture within the anaerobic reactor, the temperature is to be maintained constant at the level favorable to the bacteria. Then, the heat profile of the mixture in the anaerobic reactor, considering heat generation by forced convection using heating element was used to simulate the process. The effects of different design parameters input of the heating element on maintaining the isothermal condition in a digester were also included in the calculations. The design of the heating element has to affect the temperature like the design of the heating pipe, the size of the anaerobic digestion and the material of the heating pipe. The modeling and analysis are using commercial finite element software COMSOL Multiphysics. The temperature increase as the contact surface area of the design of heating pipe increase. The heat transfer efficiency increase as the thermal conductivity of the material increase. The volume of the POME increase, the more energy to transfer the heat to the surrounding of POME.