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Approaches to numerical modeling of anaerobic digestion bioreactor operation: a review

https://doi.org/10.26898/0370-8799-2025-5-11

Abstract

With the intensive development of agriculture, unfavorable environmental effects are actively manifesting themselves. In particular, significant financial resources are allocated to solve the problems of livestock complexes in some regions of the Russian Federation. The paper provides an overview of the approaches to numerical modeling of processes occurring during anaerobic fermentation and aimed at obtaining biogas (methane) and organic fertilizer. In recent years, there has been an increase in the interest among foreign and Russian scientists in the problem of modeling the technological process of bioreactors due to the development of computing power and the ability to take into account in the model the factors affecting the efficiency of fermentation, increasing the yield of biogas or the quality of fertilizer. The trends and shortcomings of individual areas, as well as approaches that allow taking into account biochemical processes in the reactor volume and on the surface of substrate particles, are identified. The relevance of searching for methods for assessing the dynamics of the number and the factors on which the diversity of microbiological consortia depends is shown. The most promising for practical application in the production of biofertilizers should be considered the models based on machine learning and allowing to predict the development of microbiological communities, verified on semi-industrial experimental data under the conditions of fermentation of specific substrates, as well as numerical models and software tools, including the calculation of hydrodynamic parameters, temperature fields during mixing and feeding a new portion of the substrate into the reactor and some of the most important biochemical processes leading to the formation of limiting products of the acidogenesis and acetogenesis stages. Based on the obtained array of information, the problems of numerical modeling of mixing conditions in the reactors of the operating complex were formulated.

About the Authors

A. A. Rubcov
Kemerovo State University Kemerovo
Russian Federation

Alexandr A. Rubcov - Post-graduate Student

 Kemerovo



D. A. Nemuschenko
Novosibirsk State Technical University
Russian Federation

Dmitriy A. Nemuschenko - Senior Lector

address: 20, Prospekt K. Marksa, Novosibirsk, 630073



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Review

For citations:


Rubcov A.A., Nemuschenko D.A. Approaches to numerical modeling of anaerobic digestion bioreactor operation: a review. Siberian Herald of Agricultural Science. 2025;55(5):115-129. (In Russ.) https://doi.org/10.26898/0370-8799-2025-5-11

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