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Mathematical modelling of water-based biogas scrubber operating at digester pressure

  • Sunil Kumar Saini EMAIL logo and Milind V. Rane
Published/Copyright: August 30, 2023
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Chemical Product and Process Modeling
From the journal Chemical Product and Process Modeling Volume 18 Issue 6

Abstract

The socio-economic feasibility of biogas as a renewable source of energy has been analyzed for the energy security of India. The impact of Indian government schemes such as the National Biogas and Manure Management Programme (NBMMP) for the implementation of Bioenergy has been discussed in detail. The feasibility of a water-based scrubber (high as well as low pressure) for Bio-methane production in the Indian scenario was analyzed. Theoretical modeling for Steady-State Digester Pressure Water-based Biogas Scrubber (DP-WBS) was performed using the Sum Rate Method. Design parameters for a DP-WBS-based scrubber having a capacity of 60 Nm3/h were optimized at the digester pressure of 110 mm of the Water Column (WC). Modeling for raw biogas (CH4 64 %, CO2 30 %, H2S 1000 ppm) scrubbing was done with and without water recirculation. Sensitivity analysis shows that a 90 m3/h water flow rate and a total of 7 theoretical stages are required to reduce the CO2 concentration in biogas from 30 % to <2.58 % and H2S concentration from 1000 ppm to <20 ppm. H2S removal efficiency in the scrubber was found to be highly dependent on operating conditions at the regeneration section.

Keywords: biogas; digester pressure; sustainable development; water scrubbing
Corresponding author: Sunil Kumar Saini, Mechanical Engineering, Indian Institute of Technology Bombay, Mumbai, Maharashtra, 400076, India, E-mail:

Funding source: Department of Higher Education Government of India.

Acknowledgments

The author also acknowledges the review and feedback received from Prof S L Bapat, Prof Neeraj Kumbhakarna, Prof Sreedhara Sheshadri, and Prof Uday Gaitonde (all faculties affiliated with IIT Bombay) during the seminars.

  1. Research ethics: Every author ensures adherence to all the journal’s policies concerning research ethics.

  2. Author contributions: Sunil K Saini: Ph.D. Scholar, Code development, Data generation, and interpretation, manuscript writing, Grant writing, post-review revision update. Milind V Rane: Thesis Supervisor, Conceptualization of the Problem, Supervision in Financial Grant Writing, Manuscript Review, Feedback, and Update, worked along with the corresponding author for Post-Review Feedback and Correction.

  3. Conflict of interest statement: All authors state no conflict of interest.

  4. Research funding: (1) Tata Center for Technology and Development at IIT Bombay for project funding (2) Department of Higher Education in terms of Ph.D. Fellowship.

  5. Data availability: The raw data can be obtained on request from the corresponding author. It will be provided as asked by the research community and readers.

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Received: 2022-12-12
Accepted: 2023-07-08
Published Online: 2023-08-30

© 2023 Walter de Gruyter GmbH, Berlin/Boston

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https://doi.org/10.1515/cppm-2022-0082
Keywords for this article
biogas; digester pressure; sustainable development; water scrubbing

Articles in the same Issue

  1. Frontmatter
  2. Research Articles
  3. Tuning of PID controllers for unstable first-order plus dead time systems
  4. Oxygen excess ratio control of PEM fuel cell: fractional order modeling and fractional filter IMC-PID control
  5. Proposal and energy/exergy/economic analyses of a smart heat recovery for distillation tower of the Naphtha Hydrotreating Unit of the Petrochemical Plant; designing a low-carbon plant
  6. Three-dimensional CFD study on thermo-hydraulic behaviour of finned tubes in a heat exchange system for heat transfer enhancement
  7. A simulation and thermodynamic improvement of the methanol production process with economic analysis: natural gas vapor reforming and utilization of carbon capture
  8. Optimization of hydrogel composition for effective release of drug
  9. Mathematical modelling of water-based biogas scrubber operating at digester pressure
  10. COCO, a process simulator: methane oxidation simulation & its agreement with commercial simulator’s predictions
  11. Hydrodynamics of shear thinning fluid in a square microchannel: a numerical approach
  12. Parameter estimation in non-linear chemical processes: an opposite point-based differential evolution (OPDE) approach
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