Dynamical modelling of an anaerobic digestion fluidized bed reactor

One of the main difficulties in modelling a Fluidized Bed Biofilm Reactor (FBBR) is to take into account hydraulic phenomena (such as bed expansion) and its interactions with the biological variables. In this paper, we shall present a dynamical model of the process, analyse the stability of the hydrodynamics and illustrate its performances in simulation, A key feature of the model is that it combines mass balance of the process components with momentum balance equations in order to emphasise the different hydrodynamics of the liquid phase and of the solid phase, and the interactions between both phases, The model derivation finally leads to a set of partial differential equations (PDE), This model is intended to be used as a basis for the derivation of controllers and for dynamical simulation. (C) 1997 IAWQ. Published by Elsevier Science Ltd