A Framework Based on Finite Element Method (FEM) for Modelling and Assessing the Affection of the Local Thermal Weather Factors on the Performance of Anaerobic Lagoons for the Natural Treatment of Swine Wastewater

Department of Process Engineering, Institute for Environmental Studies and Natural Resources (i-UNAT), University of Las Palmas de Gran Canaria (ULPGC), 35017 Las Palmas, Spain

Author to whom correspondence should be addressed.

^†

These authors contributed equally to this work.

Academic Editor: Bing-Jie Ni

Water 2021, 13(7), 882; https://doi.org/10.3390/w13070882

Received: 1 February 2021 / Revised: 9 March 2021 / Accepted: 11 March 2021 / Published: 24 March 2021

(This article belongs to the Section Wastewater Treatment and Reuse)

View Full-Text Download PDF

Browse Figures

Citation Export

Abstract

Anaerobic lagoons are natural wastewater treatment systems suitable for swine farms in small communities due to its low operational and building costs, as well as for the environmental sustainability that these technologies enable. The local weather is one of the factors which greatly influences the efficiency of the organic matter degradation within anaerobic lagoons, since microbial growth is closely related to temperature. In this manuscript, we propose a mathematical model which involves the two-dimensional Stokes, advection–diffusion-reaction and heat transfer equations for an unstirred fluid flow. Furthermore, the Anaerobic Digestion Model No1 (ADM1), developed by the International Water Association (IWA), has been implemented in the model. The partial differential equations resulting from the model, which involve a large number of state variables that change according to the position and the time, are solved through the use of the Finite Element Method. The results of the simulations indicated that the methodology is capable of predicting reasonably well the steady-state of the concentrations for all processes that take place in the anaerobic digestion and for each one of the variables considered; cells, organic matter, nutrients, etc. In view of the results, it can be concluded that the model has significant potential for the design and the study of anaerobic cells’ behaviour within free flow systems. View Full-Text

Keywords: modelling; anaerobic digestion; ADM1; free flow reactors; finite elements analysis

▼ Show Figures

Figure 1

This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited

Supplementary Material

Supplementary File 1:
PDF-Document (PDF, 625 KiB)

Share and Cite

MDPI and ACS Style

Brito-Espino, S.; Ramos-Martín, A.; Pérez-Báez, S.O.; Mendieta-Pino, C.; Leon-Zerpa, F. A Framework Based on Finite Element Method (FEM) for Modelling and Assessing the Affection of the Local Thermal Weather Factors on the Performance of Anaerobic Lagoons for the Natural Treatment of Swine Wastewater. Water 2021, 13, 882. https://doi.org/10.3390/w13070882

AMA Style

Brito-Espino S, Ramos-Martín A, Pérez-Báez SO, Mendieta-Pino C, Leon-Zerpa F. A Framework Based on Finite Element Method (FEM) for Modelling and Assessing the Affection of the Local Thermal Weather Factors on the Performance of Anaerobic Lagoons for the Natural Treatment of Swine Wastewater. Water. 2021; 13(7):882. https://doi.org/10.3390/w13070882

Chicago/Turabian Style

Brito-Espino, Saulo, Alejandro Ramos-Martín, Sebastian O. Pérez-Báez, Carlos Mendieta-Pino, and Federico Leon-Zerpa. 2021. "A Framework Based on Finite Element Method (FEM) for Modelling and Assessing the Affection of the Local Thermal Weather Factors on the Performance of Anaerobic Lagoons for the Natural Treatment of Swine Wastewater" Water 13, no. 7: 882. https://doi.org/10.3390/w13070882

Find Other Styles

Note that from the first issue of 2016, MDPI journals use article numbers instead of page numbers. See further details here.

Article Metrics

Abstract views Pdf views Html views

Article Menu

A Framework Based on Finite Element Method (FEM) for Modelling and Assessing the Affection of the Local Thermal Weather Factors on the Performance of Anaerobic Lagoons for the Natural Treatment of Swine Wastewater

Abstract

Supplementary Material

Share and Cite

Article Metrics

Article Access Statistics

Article Access Map by Country/Region

Further Information

Guidelines

MDPI Initiatives

Follow MDPI