Department of Physics, Renewable Energy Research Group, University of Fort Hare, Alice, South Africa.
Fort Hare Institute of Technology, University of Fort Hare, Alice, South Africa.
Sci Rep. 2024 Oct 23;14(1):24960. doi: 10.1038/s41598-024-76080-y.
Recovering energy from biomass and treating organic waste can be done effectively through a biogas digester system. However, monitoring the performance and control of the system to produce biogas is possible through the online process. Therefore, this study developed a novel low-cost gas and temperature profiling system (GTPS) and data acquisition system (DAS) used in biogas digester. The GTPS is designed to monitor and record the amount of methane (CH) and carbon dioxide (CO), the main constituent of biogas, from 0 to 100% and to measure the slurry temperature in the digester using a K-type thermocouple. To test the developed monitoring system, the biogas yield (%) and temperature were monitored, and the result obtained agreed with that reported and obtained in the literature (50-70% and 30-40%) for CH and CO, respectively, followed by the desired mesophilic temperature condition for biogas production (20-35 °C). The study employed an RS-232/RS-485 converter for data communication and a low-cost thermocouple module (isolated analog input) that was installed in the data acquisition system. Interestingly, the application of the converter equipment has never been used in any study on monitoring a biogas digester.
通过沼气消化器系统可以有效地从生物质中回收能源并处理有机废物。然而，通过在线过程可以监测沼气产生的系统性能和控制。因此，本研究开发了一种新型的低成本气体和温度剖面系统（GTPS）和数据采集系统（DAS），用于沼气消化器。GTPS 旨在监测和记录沼气中甲烷（CH）和二氧化碳（CO）的含量，沼气的主要成分，从 0 到 100%，并使用 K 型热电偶测量消化器中的浆液温度。为了测试开发的监测系统，监测了沼气产量（%）和温度，并且获得的结果与文献中报道和获得的 CH 和 CO 的结果（分别为 50-70%和 30-40%）一致，随后获得了所需的中温条件用于沼气生产（20-35°C）。该研究使用 RS-232/RS-485 转换器进行数据通信，并在数据采集系统中安装了低成本热电偶模块（隔离模拟输入）。有趣的是，转换器设备的应用在任何沼气消化器监测研究中都从未使用过。
