Bioproduction of hydrogen, methane and high added value chemicals from organic wastes
Biological processes valorize industrial, municipal and agricultural wastes, producing biofuels and green chemicals such as volatile fatty acids, succinic acid, citric acid and biopolymers
This research line includes:
- Tests in small batch reactors, to evaluate the treatability of different organic wastes and to identify the optimal operating conditions (temperature, pH, nutrient addition, etc).
- Assessment of different types of chemical and physical pre-treatments of the tested organic matrices.
- Operation of continuous flow tests in pilot scale bioreactors (10-30 L), aimed at the optimizing the process operational conditions (residence time, mixing, type of support for biofilm development, etc.).
- Kinetic and fluid dynamic modeling of the biofuel and chemicals production process, using software such as Comsol Multyphysics and AspenPlus. The process simulation, calibrated using experimental data obtained in continuous mode, is aimed at investigating the effect of different design parameters on process performance and at performing the model-based design of full-scale processes.
- Analysis of investment and operational costs and of the revenues from methane and energy production, based on the design of full-scale processes.