A three-phase fluidized bed anaerobic biofilm reactor model for treating complex substrates

AGUIRRE, PIO; MAUREN FUENTES,; MIGUEL MUSSATI,; NICOLAS SCENNA,

Barcelona

Congreso; 15th European Symposium on Computer Aided Process Engineering (Escape 15); 2005

The main purpose of this work is to present a model of a three-phase solid-liquid-gas system to investigate the hydrodynamic and biological behaviors and performances of fluidized bed anaerobic biofilm reactors (FBABRs). A general one-dimensional dynamic model assuming axial dispersion is proposed for representing variation of the properties such as phase hold-ups, superficial phase velocities, biofilm thickness and biological and chemical specie concentrations. Biochemical transformations are assumed occurring only in the fluidized bed zone but not in the free-support material zone. The biofilm process model is coupled to the system hydrodynamic model through the biofilm detachment rate, which is assumed as a first-order function of the energy dissipation parameter. Non-active biomass is considered as particulate material subject to hydrolysis. A scheme of carbohydrate degradation, kinetic parameters accepted in the literature and design characteristics of a hypothetical FBABR are taken into account to show model predictions. The performance of the FBABR is described for different phase dispersion coefficients.