First tests of using an electronic nose to control biogas plant efficiency

Published: 8 September 2013
Abstract Views: 711
PDF: 619
Publisher's note
All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.

Authors

The demand for online monitoring and control of biogas process is increasing, since better monitoring and control system can improve process plants stability and economy. A number of parameters,such as gas production, pH, alkalinity, Volatile Fatty Acids (VFA) and H2, in both the liquid and the gas phase have been suggested as process indicators. For different reasons these indicators do not offer enough information to build a consistent feedback control able to promptly forecast and solve plants working problems. The study proposes the use of unconventional complex sensors as a possible solution to engineer a reliable control system. Tests to analyze the biogas coming from a plant were performed using an electronic nose (Airsense PEN 2, AIRSENSE Analytics GmbH). In particular, a 108 olfactometric fingerprinting reference database obtained by different combination of VFA (acetic, propionic e butyric acids, pure or in solution with water) was initially determined. As a second step, the e-nose was tested to verify a potential difference in the analysis of gases emitted by digested manure. Statistic multivariate analysis confirm that the e-nose can distinguish the manure and digester mixed liquor aromatic emission proving the possibility of using this technology as possible base for a biogas control system.

Dimensions

Altmetric

PlumX Metrics

Downloads

Download data is not yet available.

Citations

How to Cite

Borgonovo, F., Costa, A. and Lazzari, M. (2013) “First tests of using an electronic nose to control biogas plant efficiency”, Journal of Agricultural Engineering, 44(s2). doi: 10.4081/jae.2013.351.

Similar Articles

<< < 34 35 36 37 38 39 

You may also start an advanced similarity search for this article.