Date of Award:

8-2012

Document Type:

Thesis

Degree Name:

Master of Science (MS)

Department:

Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering

Department name when degree awarded

Mechanical Engineering

Committee Chair(s)

Byard Wood

Committee

Byard Wood

Committee

Ron Sims

Committee

Barton Smith

Abstract

Anaerobic digestion has great potential as an energy source. Not only does it provide an effective method for waste mitigation, but it has the potential to generate significant quantities of fuel and electricity. In order to ensure efficient digestion and biomass utilization, however, the system must be continuously maintained at elevated temperatures. It is technically feasible to supplement such a system with outside energy, but it is more cost effective to heat the system using only the produced biogas. While there is considerable literature covering the theory of anaerobic digestion, there are very few practical studies to show how heat utilization affects system operation. This study considers the effect of major design variables (i.e. heat exchanger efficiencies and biogas conditioning) on promoting a completely self-sustaining digestion system. The thesis considers a real world system and analyzes how it can be improved to avoid the need of an external energy source.

Checksum

80b1bbb6d199b5a597f8b00c4569277b

Comments

This work made publicly available electronically on July 31, 2012.

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