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Updated: May 5, 2026

Continuously-stirred Anaerobic Digester to Convert Organic Wastes into Biogas: System Setup and Basic Operation
Published on: July 13, 2012
A dynamic model of growth phase of bio-conversion of methane to polyhydroxybutyrate using dynamic flux balance
Mohadeseh Nasershariat1, Mahmoud Reza Pishvaie2, Ramin Bozorgmehry Boozarjomehry1
1Department of Chemical and Petroleum Engineering, Sharif University of Technology, Tehran, Iran.
Abstract:
Biological conversion of waste methane to biodegradable plastics is a way of reducing their production cost. This study addresses the computational modeling of the growth phase reactor of the process of polyhydroxybutyrate production. The model was used for investigating the effect of gas recycling and inlet gas retention time on the reactor performance. The model was run by the use of a genome-scale metabolic network of Methylocystis hirsuta in a dynamic flux balance analysis framework. The reactor has been modeled for two separate feeding scenarios: a pure methane feed and a biogas feed. The mass transfer coefficient parameter was predicted as a function of superficial gas velocities by the regression of data from published experiments. The results show an increase of removal efficiency by 38% and biomass concentration by 2.8 g/L with the increase of gas recycle ratio from 0 to 30 at the empty bed residence time of 60 .
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