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Assessment of the Effectiveness of a Solar System Heating an Anaerobic Bioreactor

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Abstract

The performance of a solar system designed to heat a packed bed reactor for anaerobic treatment of municipal wastewater was evaluated, and the feasibility of employing low-scale solar reactors in small settlements or enterprises was investigated. An energy balance was performed using a simple reactor model previously proposed by Yiannopoulos et al. (Bioresource Technology 99:7742–7749, 2008) to estimate the size of a solar system in Patras, Greece. The main objective is to feed the reactor with warm water produced by solar energy and achieve an increase of temperature close to 35°C for the majority of the year. Model simulations indicated that the heat demand of the reactor could be balanced practically by a number of flat plate solar collectors supplying warm water at above 20°C for over 95% of the year. Therefore, the proposed system can offer a viable alternative to enhancing anaerobic treatment in wastewater facilities.

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Abbreviations

AF:

Anaerobic filter

COD:

Chemical oxygen demand

HRT:

Hydraulic retention time

A c :

Solar collector area (m2)

c p :

Specific heat (J kg−1 K−1)

D :

Diameter of the reactor (m)

F R :

Solar collector heat removal factor

\( F_{\text{R}}^{\prime } \) :

Modified solar collector heat removal factor

I T :

Hourly incident irradiation per unit area of a tilted solar collector (W/m2)

K τα :

Irradiation incidence angle modifier

L :

Height of the reactor (m)

\( \dot{m} \) :

Mass flow rate (kg s−1)

p :

Fraction of the year that warm water with temperature greater than 20°C is delivered to the reactor (%)

q u :

Useful energy gain per unit area of solar collector (W m−2)

Q L :

Total heat demand by the solar reactor system (W)

\( \left\langle {{Q_{\text{L}}}} \right\rangle \) :

Cumulative heat demand by the solar reactor system (W)

Q Lb :

Heat losses due to biogas production (W)

Q Lc :

Heat demand by the reactor content (W)

Q Lp :

Pipe heat losses (W)

Q Lr :

Reactor heat losses from the insulated surfaces (W)

Q Ls :

Warm water storage tank heat losses to the surroundings (W)

Q u :

Useful energy gain of solar collector (W)

r c :

Energy gain correction factor

T a :

Warm water temperature at the reactor outlet (°C)

T e :

Ambient air temperature (°C)

T i :

Warm water temperature at the reactor inlet (°C)

T s :

Warm water storage tank temperature (°C)

\( T_{\text{s}}^{ + } \) :

Warm water storage tank temperature at the end of Δt = 1 h (°C)

U L :

Overall heat transfer coefficient for the collector (W m−2 K−1)

\( {U'_{\text{L}}} \) :

Modified overall heat transfer coefficient for the collector (W m−2 K−1)

V :

Reactor volume (m3)

V s :

Storage tank volume (m3)

z :

Vertical coordinate (m)

a :

Voidage

β :

Slope of solar collector (deg)

Δt :

Time increment (s)

λ :

Thermal conductivity of the reactor content (W m−1 K−1)

λ e :

Equivalent thermal conductivity of packed bed (W m−1 K−1)

λ p :

Thermal conductivity of pebble (W m−1 K−1)

λ w :

Thermal conductivity of water (W m−1 K−1)

ρ :

Density of fluids (kg m−3)

(τα):

Transmittance–absorbance products of the solar collector

(τα)′:

Modified transmittance–absorbance products of the solar collector

(τα) n :

Transmittance–absorbance product of the solar collector for irradiation perpendicular to the collector surface

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Mechanical Engineering, Technological Education Institution of Patras, M. Alexandrou 1, 26334, Patras, Greece

    Andrew Ch. Yiannopoulos

  2. Environmental Engineering Laboratory, Department of Civil Engineering, University of Patras, 26500, Patras, Greece

    Ioannis D. Manariotis & Constantinos V. Chrysikopoulos

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  1. Andrew Ch. Yiannopoulos
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  2. Ioannis D. Manariotis
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  3. Constantinos V. Chrysikopoulos
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Correspondence to Andrew Ch. Yiannopoulos.

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Ch. Yiannopoulos, A., Manariotis, I.D. & Chrysikopoulos, C.V. Assessment of the Effectiveness of a Solar System Heating an Anaerobic Bioreactor. Water Air Soil Pollut 223, 1443–1454 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11270-011-0956-9

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