Floating Membrane Bioreactors with High Gas Hold-Up for Syngas-to-Biomethane Conversion

Konstantinos Chandolias, Enise Pekgenc and Mohammad J. Taherzadeh
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Konstantinos Chandolias: Swedish Centre for Resource Recovery (SCRR), Faculty of Textiles engineering and Business, University of Borås, Allégatan 1, 501 90 Borås, Sweden
Enise Pekgenc: Department of Environmental Engineering, Istanbul Technical University, Maslak, 34467 Sarıyer/İstanbul, Turkey
Mohammad J. Taherzadeh: Swedish Centre for Resource Recovery (SCRR), Faculty of Textiles engineering and Business, University of Borås, Allégatan 1, 501 90 Borås, Sweden

Energies, 2019, vol. 12, issue 6, 1-14

Abstract: The low gas-to-liquid mass transfer rate is one of the main challenges in syngas biomethanation. In this work, a new concept of the floating membrane system with high gas hold-up was introduced in order to enhance the mass transfer rate of the process. In addition, the effect of the inoculum-to-syngas ratio was investigated. The experiments were conducted at 55 °C with an anaerobic mixed culture in both batch and continuous modes. According to the results from the continuous experiments, the H 2 and CO conversion rates in the floating membrane bioreactor were approximately 38% and 28% higher in comparison to the free (suspended) cell bioreactors. The doubling of the thickness of the membrane bed resulted in an increase of the conversion rates of H 2 and CO by approximately 6% and 12%, respectively. The highest H 2 and CO consumption rates and CH 4 production rate recorded were approximately 22 mmol/(L·d), 50 mmol/(L·d), and 34.41 mmol/(L·d), respectively, obtained at the highest inoculum-to-syngas ratio of 0.2 g/mL. To conclude, the use of the floating membrane system enhanced the syngas biomethanation rates, while a thicker membrane bed resulted in even higher syngas conversion rates. Moreover, the increase of the inoculum-to-syngas ratio of up to 0.2 g/mL favored the syngas conversion.

Keywords: floating MBR; syngas-to-biomethane conversion; high gas hold-up; inoculum-to-syngas ratio (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: Q Q0 Q4 Q40 Q41 Q42 Q43 Q47 Q48 Q49 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2019
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (2)

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