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Anaerobic Digestor of Organic Waste Processing: A Biomass Energy Production Project

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Conference

2012 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Location

San Antonio, Texas

Publication Date

June 10, 2012

Start Date

June 10, 2012

End Date

June 13, 2012

ISSN

2153-5965

Conference Session

Projects in Alternative Energy

Tagged Division

Energy Conversion and Conservation

Page Count

13

Page Numbers

25.183.1 - 25.183.13

DOI

10.18260/1-2--20943

Permanent URL

https://peer.asee.org/20943

Download Count

843

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Paper Authors

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Wagdy Mahmoud University of the District of Columbia

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Wagdy H. Mahmoud is an Associate Professor of electrical engineering at the Electrical Engineering Department at UDC. Mahmoud is actively involved in research in the areas of reconfigurable logic, hardware/software co-design of a system on a chip using reconfigurable logic, application-specific integrated circuits (ASIC), digital logic design, image compressions, digital signal processing, computer architecture, embedded systems, system on a chip, and renewable energy.

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Esther T. Ososanya University of the District of Columbia

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Esther Ososanya is a professor of electrical and computer engineering at the University of the District of Columbia. During her career, Ososanya has worked for private industry as a circuit development engineer and as a software engineer, in addition to her academic activities. She received her education in the United Kingdom, where she received her Ph.D. in electrical engineering from the University of Bradford in 1985. She was also a Visiting Professor at Michigan Technological University for five years, and an Associate Professor at Tennessee Technological University for seven years prior to joining the University of the District of Columbia in the Fall of 2001. Ososanya is interested in new applications for VLSI, MEMS, parallel processing, and pipeline architecture. In recent years, she has worked with colleagues to apply these technologies to such environmental problems as watershed monitoring, biosensors, and sustainable energy applications.

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Pradeep K. Behera University of the District of Columbia

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Pradeep Behera, Ph.D., P.E., is a faculty member in the Civil Engineering program at the University of the District of Columbia, Washington, D.C. He earned his Ph.D. from the University of Toronto, Canada, in water and environmental engineering and B.S. and M.S. in civil engineering from Sambalpur University, India. Prior to joining to UDC, he worked as a Senior Water Resources Engineer at BPC Group, Orlando, Fla., and Clarifica, Inc., Richmond Hill, Canada. He served as a Senior Lecturer at the National Institute of Technology, Rourkela, India during 1990-1996 and worked as an Adjunct Professor at the Ryerson University, Toronto during 2002-2004. His research interests include urban stormwater management, non-point source pollution, water resources engineering, and sustainable urban water systems. He has published several research papers in peer-review journals, book chapters, and international and national conference proceedings. He is a Professional Engineer from the state of Maryland and District of Columbia and is a Diplomat from the American Academy of Water Resources Engineers.

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Abiose Adebayo University of the District of Columbia

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Abiose Adebayo is a professor of mechanical engineering at the University of the District of Columbia. Until recently, he was the Chair of the Civil and Mechanical Engineering Department. His research expertise is in the aerothermodynamics of modern high-performance compressors. He earned a diploma in aerospace engineering from the Kiev Institute of Civil Aviation Engineers, Kiev, Ukraine, and his doctorate in aeronautics from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, Mass. He has taught various mechanical engineering courses over the past 32 years.

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Xueqing Song University of the District of Columbia

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Xueqing Song received his Ph.D. in organic chemistry from Nankai University, China, in 1999. His dissertation work was on the design and synthesis of biologically active triorganotin complexes. He completed a postdoctoral fellowship in the Department of Chemistry at the Catholic University of America (2004). In Jan. 2007, Xueqing Song joined the Department of Chemistry and Physics as an Assistant Professor. Song is actively involved in research in the areas of organic synthesis and chemical analysis. Currently, he is involved in the design and synthesis of ionic triorganotin complexes with potential biological activities.

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Mademba Cisse University of the District of Columbia

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Mademba Cisse is a full-time senior mechanical engineering student at the University of the District of Columbia and a Research Assistant for two years on the design of scalable anaerobic digester for organic waste processing. Designing the digester has required the use of the following engineering field and skills: mechanics, kinematics, thermodynamics, material science, structural analysis, and the use of computer-aided engineering tools.

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Ismael DJibril Boureima University of the District of Columbia

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Ismael DJibril Boureima is a full-time mechanical engineering student at the University of the District of Columbia. Mechanical engineering is the branch of engineering that involves the production and usage of heat and mechanical power for the design, production, and operation of machines and tools. I have been working as Research Assistant for a year studying the different types of biomass, the digestion process, digesters performance factors, and the thermodynamics analysis and calculation of the energy contents of methane gas.

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Ashish Bhandari University of the District of Columbia

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Ashish Bhandari was a graduate of the University of the District of Columbia, with a B.S.E.E. degree in 2010 from the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering. His specialization area is in embedded systems design and microprocessor control of mechanical systems. He is currently seeking admissions to graduate school in computer engineering and wireless communications area.

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Mekonnen Hailegiorgis University of the District of Columbia

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Mekonnen Hailegiorgis is a full-time senior civil engineering student at the civil engineering program and a Research Assistant for one year on the anaerobic digester project. His contribution include the study that was designed to get an understanding on the production of organic wastes from the hotels and restaurants and to conduct a quantitative analysis of organic waste produced from hotels and restaurants within the District of Columbia which would support the applicability of the main research project. He want to pursue a graduate program in civil and environmental engineering.

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Abstract

Anaerobic Digestor of Organic Waste Processing: A Biomass Energy ProductionProjectAbstract:Biogas is produced when organic matter is degraded in the absence of oxygen. The process, fromdegradation to gas production is called anaerobic digestion. The research in this study focuses on thefeasibility of the design and implementation of an operational digester, the monitoring and control of thedifferent biodegradation process variables and experiments to boost or maximize the gas production. Ourgoals in this phase of the study are: (i) to get an understanding on the characteristics of organic wastefrom hotels and restaurants and study the feasibility of implementing the proposed anaerobic digester forbiogas production for District of Columbia hotels and restaurants, and (ii) to build a mini anaerobicdigester that can generate biogas in the laboratory and to provide preliminary data and identify keyaspects of the design for an efficient, reliable, and low-cost anaerobic digester for waste processing. Thespecific research objectives for goal (1) include understanding of organic waste collection methods inhotels and restaurants and possible quantification of organic waste. The research methodology include(i) Preparation of survey questioner to collect the data about the current generation and wasteprocessing of organic waste from a variety of sources, (ii) Implementation of survey through site visits, (iii)Quantification of daily organic waste and evaluation of waste processing through the experimentalanaerobic digester. The specific research objectives for goal (ii) include design of a small scale anaerobicdigester that can be operated with a minimum of monitoring, regulating, and adjusting and optimization ofthe experimental condition to maximize the amount of biogas produced per unit time with the proposedmini digester. The research methodology includes (i) design and fabrication of laboratory scale minianaerobic digester, and (ii) analysis of the content of the biogas produced by the proposed mini digesterusing Gas Chromatography (GC) under different experimental conditions.

Mahmoud, W., & Ososanya, E. T., & Behera, P. K., & Adebayo, A., & Song, X., & Cisse, M., & Boureima, I. D., & Bhandari, A., & Hailegiorgis, M. (2012, June), Anaerobic Digestor of Organic Waste Processing: A Biomass Energy Production Project Paper presented at 2012 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition, San Antonio, Texas. 10.18260/1-2--20943

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