Temperature control of a pilot anaerobic digestion reactor

Abstract

Results of analysis and design and implementation of a temperature control system for a practical pilot anaerobic digestion (AD) bioreactor fed with dairy waste are presented. A dynamic model of the reactor temperature is used as the basis for theoretical results, including simulations. Controller functions include on-off control, proportional plus integral (PI) control, and feedforward control. Various PI controller tuning methods are compared. The need for adaptivity of PI settings is investigated. Results for a simulated full-scale reactor are given.