Advances of Artificial Intelligence in a Green Energy Environment

By Joshua Thomas

Advances of Artificial Intelligence in a Green Energy Environment reviews the new technologies in intelligent computing and AI that are reducing the dimension of data coverage worldwide. This handbook describes intelligent optimization algorithms that can be applied in various branches of energy engineering where uncertainty is a major concern.

Including AI methodologies and applying advanced evolutionary algorithms to real-world application problems for everyday life applications, this book considers distributed energy systems, hybrid renewable energy systems using AI methods, and new opportunities in blockchain technology in smart energy.

Covering state-of-the-art developments in a fast-moving technology, this reference is useful for engineering students and researchers interested and working in the AI industry.

• Looks at new techniques in artificial intelligence (AI) reducing the dimension of data coverage worldwide
• Chapters include AI methodologies using enhanced hybrid swarm-based optimization algorithms
• Includes flowchart diagrams for exampling optimizing techniques

• Language: English
• Publisher: Academic Press
• Release date: May 20, 2022
• ISBN: 9780323885744

Book preview

Chapter 1: Application of some ways to intensify the process of anaerobic bioconversion of organic matter

Andrey A. Kovalev, Dmitriy A. Kovalev, Victor S. Grigoriev, and Alexander Makarov     Federal Scientific Agroengineering Center VIM, Moscow, Russia

Abstract

The work is devoted to the intensification of anaerobic bioconversion of volatile solids in a wide range of liquid organic production and consumption wastes. The description of the existing biogas plants is given. It is shown that intensification methods can be conditionally divided into a number of impacts and technological improvements. The chapter describes a number of methods for enhancing efficiency of anaerobic bioconversion of organic waste, which were directly investigated by the authors. On the basis of the material presented, an energy model of the anaerobic bioconversion system of organic waste for the electricity production was developed. On the basis of the above methods for enhancing efficiency of anaerobic bioconversion of volatile solids and the developed energy model, it is assumed that the maximum growth rate of the biomass of microorganisms is a function of various types of energy supplied to the substrate (mechanical, electrical, magnetic, thermal, etc.). The proposed energy model is used to assess the energy efficiency of various methods for enhancing efficiency of anaerobic bioconversion of volatile solids of liquid organic waste.

Keywords

Anaerobic bioconversion; Biogas; Biogas plant; Energy model; Intensification

1.1. Introduction

The rise in prices for energy resources, emergence, and aggravation of environmental problems has led to a significant interest in the use of bioconversion technology for organic waste for energy production [1]. The negative impact of human activity on the environment is associated not only with the increasing consumption of natural resources but also, to a greater extent, with the formation of liquid and solid waste from agricultural and processing industries [2,3]. The fact that animals poorly assimilate the energy of plant feed and that more than half of this energy is used unproductively—goes into manure—allows us to consider the latter not only as a valuable raw material for organic fertilizers but also as a powerful renewable energy source.

After the Second World War, due to the energy crisis, in many European countries, to cover the lack of liquid fuel, they paid serious attention to the possibility of obtaining biogas from animal waste, in particular from farm animal manure. The operation of several dozen installations built at that time confirmed the possibility of processing also the excrement of farm animals using methanogenesis. The biogas produced was mainly compressed and used to drive tractors. However, in competition with cheap traditional fuels, the inefficient and difficult production of biogas and its utilization turned out to be economically disadvantageous.

In recent years, the situation in agriculture with energy raw materials has changed fundamentally. The acute energy deficit, accompanied by rapidly growing oil prices, as a permanent factor in the global economy, leads to the accelerated implementation of research programs aimed at discovering and practical use of additional local fuel resources. Under such circumstances, the problematic process of processing animal excrement into biogas again comes to the fore. It should be emphasized, however, that the reasons leading to the renewed interest in anaerobic fermentation go beyond the purely energetic rationale. The transition of the agro-industrial complex to an industrial basis leads to a sharp increase in the waste of agro-industrial enterprises, which must be disposed of without environmental pollution.

One of the methods for the rational use of organic waste from the agro-industrial complex is their methane fermentation, which turned out to be a good means of neutralizing liquid manure and preserving it as fertilizer while simultaneously obtaining a local source of energy—biogas. The experience of practical verification of methanogenesis in the field of agricultural use shows that in the hierarchy of the contribution of this method, its ecological characteristics occupy the first place, then the aspect of the production of organic fertilizers follows, and only then does the energy aspect follow. The interest in obtaining only biogas was replaced by the understanding of the significance of this process for the environment, as an energy-saving process of manure treatment and sewage treatment. In Russia, anaerobic treatment of manure and slurry is used on a limited scale, the scope of which is determined by several pilot plants. Little operating experience and the same state of affairs with the development and research of the biogas production process at such plants does not allow us to accurately judge its efficiency and the possibility of widespread use in manure utilization