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Investigation of Heat Transfer Associated with Deenbandhu Brick Built Anaerobic Digester Covered with Single-layer Soil Type


Affiliations
1 Department of Physics, University of Venda, Private Bag x5050, Thohoyandou, Limpopo 0950, South Africa
 

Energy in the form of heat is one of the important components of anaerobic digestion of cow manure, household waste, landfill waste, human waste and many others. This paper discusses the results of the investigation of heat transfer to a single layer soil type covering a 6 m3 Deenbandhu 2000 biogas digester and the heat gained by bio-slurry undergoing anaerobic fermentation inside unstirred, unheated brick built digester. The thickness of the soil layer was measured to be 0.25m starting from the tangential top of the digester to the soil surface. Measurements of temperature were averaged in an hourly basis and the initial time (0700h a.m.) was chosen due to the observation that both soil and the slurry temperatures were found to be rising up until such time (1600h p.m.) where a drop is noticed. The Fourier law of diffusion was applied in order to facilitate the computation of the soil surface heat flux using soil surface temperature and soil volumetric heat capacity and soil volumetric heat conductivity as inputs. The variation of heat gained by the slurry was found to be in good agreement with the variation in soil surface heat flux. The slurry temperature and soil surface temperature were found to be closely related (R2 = 0.949).

Keywords

Soil Surface, Heat Flux, Heat Transfer, Anaerobic Digestion, Deenbandhu Anaerobic, Digester.
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  • Investigation of Heat Transfer Associated with Deenbandhu Brick Built Anaerobic Digester Covered with Single-layer Soil Type

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Authors

Vhutshilo Nekhubvi
Department of Physics, University of Venda, Private Bag x5050, Thohoyandou, Limpopo 0950, South Africa
David Tinarwo
Department of Physics, University of Venda, Private Bag x5050, Thohoyandou, Limpopo 0950, South Africa

Abstract


Energy in the form of heat is one of the important components of anaerobic digestion of cow manure, household waste, landfill waste, human waste and many others. This paper discusses the results of the investigation of heat transfer to a single layer soil type covering a 6 m3 Deenbandhu 2000 biogas digester and the heat gained by bio-slurry undergoing anaerobic fermentation inside unstirred, unheated brick built digester. The thickness of the soil layer was measured to be 0.25m starting from the tangential top of the digester to the soil surface. Measurements of temperature were averaged in an hourly basis and the initial time (0700h a.m.) was chosen due to the observation that both soil and the slurry temperatures were found to be rising up until such time (1600h p.m.) where a drop is noticed. The Fourier law of diffusion was applied in order to facilitate the computation of the soil surface heat flux using soil surface temperature and soil volumetric heat capacity and soil volumetric heat conductivity as inputs. The variation of heat gained by the slurry was found to be in good agreement with the variation in soil surface heat flux. The slurry temperature and soil surface temperature were found to be closely related (R2 = 0.949).

Keywords


Soil Surface, Heat Flux, Heat Transfer, Anaerobic Digestion, Deenbandhu Anaerobic, Digester.

References