MODELING OF REAL BIOLOGICAL REACTORS FOR THE TREATMENT OF COMPLEX SUBSTRATES - DYNAMIC SIMULATION

A mathematical model for the dynamic simulation of anaerobic bioreacto rs containing biofilm and degrading complex substrates is presented. T he model allows to simulate different reactor configurations: single C STR, multiple CSTRs and non-ideal reactors. Our simulator was develope d on the basis of gPROMS, which allows to study a wide variety of prob lems such as optimal start-up, design under forced regimen and paramet er estimations of the biofilm kinetic from experimental data. The dige stion of cattle manure in different reactor configurations was selecte d as example to show the model and the simulator performances. (C) 199 8 Published by Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.