An outdoor anaerobic fermentation reactor loses a significant amount of energy due to heat dissipation to the surrounding environment. The digester of direct absorption biogas can effectively utilize solar energy and scattering of the medium to enhance reaction temperature, which can promote anaerobic fermentation of microorganisms. A numerical model for the direct absorption methane digester was established to investigate the mechanism of photo biochemical transformation. The average relative values of simulated results were 4.1% and 9.6%, indicating that the model can effectively simulate the heat transfer process of biogas slurry under solar irradiation. Decreasing the albedo and increasing the effect of forward scattering of small particles can improve the regenerative performance and biogas production of digester. Increasing the backward scattering effect of small particles limited biogas fermentation. Scattering distribution had bigger effects on the rates of biogas and propionic acid production than those of albedo.
Keywords: Anaerobic fermentation; Direct absorption; Particle scattering; Photo biochemical transformation; Solar energy.
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