Biological conversion of synthesis gas. Limiting conditions/scale-up

摘要

The purpose of this research is to develop a technically and economically feasible process for biologically producing H(sub 2) from synthesis gas while, at the same time, removing harmful sulfur gas compounds. Six major tasks are being studied: 1. Culture development, where the best cultures are selected and conditions optimized for simultaneous hydrogen production and sulfur gas removal; 2. Mass transfer and kinetic studies in which equations necessary for process design are developed; 3. Bioreactor design studies, where the cultures chosen in Task 1 are utilized in continuous reaction vessels to demonstrate process feasibility and define operating conditions; 4. Evaluation of biological synthetic gas conversion under limiting conditions in preparation for industrial demonstration studies; 5. Process scale-up where laboratory data are scaled to larger-size units in preparation for process demonstration in a pilot-scale unit; and 6. Economic evaluation, where process simulations are used to project process economics and identify high cost areas during sensitivity analyses.