Biogas lab
The biogas laboratory offers comprehensive equipment for the simulation of anaerobic digestion of different feedstocks (e.g. manure, organic residues and waste materials, plant biomasses) as well as for process- and process-related investigations and developments in the field of biogas production.
The available experimental facilities and analysis instruments allow fundamental investigations on process understanding and the kinetics of gas production, research work on process optimisation and control as well as the development and evaluation of substrate-adapted plant concepts and new reactor types.
In cooperation with the working group Analytical Chemistry and the working group Systems Microbiology comprehensive assessments of feedstocks, process liquids and fermentation residues can be carried out as well as system analyses of the microbiological material conversion.
Technical equippement:
- Different batch reactor systems with reactor volumes of 0.25 to 2 litres for the determination of gas production potentials of substrates for kinetic analyses and for the determination of rest gas potentials of fermentation residues
- Stirred tank reactors (3 - 50 litres) for continuous fermentation of solid and liquid feedstocks
- High-performance reactors (10 - 120 litres) with biomass retention for liquid fermentation
- Percolation reactors (10 - 40 litres, two-phase systems): leach-bed reactors operated in batches and continuous swim-bed fermenters for the fermentation of solids
- Multi-stage systems for liquid and solid fermentation
- Experimental setup for the stripping of ammonia from liquid phases in an ongoing process
- Analytical technology for process control (FOS/TAC, pH value, conductivity, redox potential)
- Gas measurement technique (CH4, CO2, H2S, O2, H2), automated gas volume measurement
