Estimation of the Kinetic Parameters (Chemical Reactions and Stoichiometry)

There are four key biological and chemical stages of anaerobic digestion:
1. Hydrolysis (large polymers, namely proteins, fats and carbohydrates, are broken down into
smaller molecules such as amino acids, fatty acids, and simple sugars)
2. Acidogenesis (acidogenic microorganisms further break down the Biomass products after
hydrolysis creating ammonia, H
2
, CO
2
, H
2
S, shorter volatile fatty acids, carbonic acids,
alcohols, as well as trace amounts of other byproducts)
3. Acetogenesis (Acetogens catabolize many of the products created in acidogenesis into acetic
acid, CO
2
and H
2
)
4. Methanogenesis (methanogens create methane from the final products of acetogenesis as well
as from some of the intermediate products from hydrolysis and acidogenesis)

A theoretical equation was established by Buswell, et al., 1952 which provides stoichiometric
calculation on the products from the anaerobic breakdown of a generic organic material of
chemical composition C
c
H
h
O
o
N
n
S
s
.

( )

( )

( )

where molecular formula subscriptions, c, h, o, n and s, represent the molar proportion of mass
fraction of elements C, H, O, N and S in the organic fraction of biomass
Equation <#> Theoretical maximum methane production - Buswell equation (Symons &
Buswell, 1933)


(a) (b)
Figure <#> (a) Net biogas production of six microalgal strains; (b) Kinetics of microalgal cell
disintegration in the fermenter (Mussgnug, Klassen, Schlter, & Kruse, 2010)

Below are the important chemical reactions which takes place at the steam methane reformer.

()

()

()
Equation <#> a) steam methane reforming; b) another important reaction which takes place in
these systems: the water-gas shift reaction; c) overall chemical reaction (Avila-Neto, et al., 2009)



Figure <#> Steam reforming of methane at 900C for different catalysts (3 kPa CH
4
, 3 kPa H
2
O).
(Laosiripojana & Assabumrungrat, 2005)



Table<#> Reaction orders for the components of interest (CH
4
, H
2
O, and H
2
) from methane
steam reforming over Ni/CeZrO
2
(Ce/Zr = 3/1) and Ni/Al
2
O
3
at different operating conditions
(Laosiripojana & Assabumrungrat, 2005)