Finite element modelling of biogas process from coal

Abstract

This paper briefly introduced our recent progresses in finite element based geocomputing and then focused on numerical simulation of coupled bioreaction-fluid flow dynamic behaviours during biogenic gas process from coal. The coal bioreactions for methane are described and modelled in the following four main steps: hydrolysis, acidogenesis, acetogenesis and methanogenesis-the formation of methane. The principal constituents are identified in the above reactions: the coal and microorganisms at solid state, the degradable coal, intermediate product, acetate and water (HO) at liquid state, CH and CO at gas state, and the governing equations to describe such coupled bioreaction-fluid flow dynamics are derived based on the mass conservation law. This is solved by finite element method on our PANDAS, and further applied in simulating and analysing the coupled biogenic gas process from coal, which demonstrate the usefulness of proposed algorithm in this paper.