The design, development and assessment of a novel de-centralised IoT-based remote monitoring of a small-scale anaerobic digester network
The implementation of community-level de-centralised anaerobic digestion (AD) systems offers a sustainable solution for organic waste management and energy provision, but there is currently a need for low-cost methods of system control and management at this scale. The problem becomes accentuated with increasing deployment, as greater complexities are created by the need to both monitor and control a wider network of smaller, community-scale plants. This paper describes research to design, deploy and test such a system by creating a network of two independent biogas generation AD reactor sites situated in the United Kingdom and Thailand. Internet of things (IoT) aspects such as inexpensive and widely available open-source control electronics was used in combination with small commercial gas analysers to log, transfer and share data with a central station, achieving real-time monitoring of performance for both networked digesters. The design proved beneficial for collaboration and knowledge exchange purposes along with providing off-site observations on reactor status. This information was used for early intervention to maintain biogas yields and enable the dynamic assessment of process economics. The concept showed potential for upscaling to larger multi-site networks of AD reactors that could maintain process optimisation without the need for skilled staff on site.
Funding
Newton Fund (UK)
British Council (UK) grant award reference 216423359
National Science Technology and Innovation Policy Office (STI), Thailand
History
School
- Architecture, Building and Civil Engineering
- Mechanical, Electrical and Manufacturing Engineering
Published in
Journal of Energy and Power TechnologyVolume
4Issue
4Publisher
Lisden Publishing IncVersion
- VoR (Version of Record)
Rights holder
© The authorPublisher statement
This is an open access article distributed under the conditions of the Creative Commons by Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium or format, provided the original work is correctly cited.Acceptance date
2022-11-21Publication date
2022-11-28Copyright date
2022ISSN
2690-1692Publisher version
Language
- en