MaxBiogas workshop 2023

timako on 22. December 2023

In the beginning of December 2023, our project group and partners from Veas gathered at OsloMet to go through our achievements of this year. Tiina Komulainen summarized the project. Matthew Stanford presented the Demo webapp. the Per Ola Rønning and Bita Joudi presented the fatty acid analysis methods and results for 40 daily samples from Veas WRRF. Truls Ødegaard showed the results of the modeling and control (SIMS2023 article) and initial work on modeling using DHI’s West software. Sheik Tawfique Elahi presented his background and ideas for his master’s thesis were discussed.

MaxBiogas workshop participants. From left: Tiina Komulainen, Bita Joudi, Per Ola Rønning, Morten Rostad Haugen, Hilde Johansen, Truls Ødegaard, Rune Holmstad, Sheik Tawfique Elahi, Matthew Stanford.

MaxBiogas workshop participants. From left: Tiina Komulainen, Bita Joudi, Per Ola Rønning, Morten Rostad Haugen, Hilde Johansen, Truls Ødegaard, Rune Holmstad, Sheik Tawfique Elahi, Matthew Stanford.

ACIT master students visit Veas WRRF

timako on 22. December 2023

In the beginning of November 2023, first year ACIT robotics and control master students visited Veas WRRF. The aim of the visit was to see the biogas production plant of which the students have modeled and designed control strategies for during Fall semester 2023. Kjell Rune Jonassen and Hilde Johansen gave an insightful presentation of the biogas plant at Veas WRRF. During the site visit, we also took a look at the ABB washing robots that clean the membrane filters of the digestate.

Virtual sensors for effluent nutrient estimation – SIMS2023

timako on 22. December 2023

In September Tiina, Truls and Malik traveled to Västerås, Sweden, to present our recent research results in the Scandinavian Simulation Societys annual meeting SIMS2023. Master student Malik Baqeri presented his work on estimation of effluent nutrients applied to a novel biological wastewater treatment process at Hias WRRF, Norway. The conference paper describing the data pre-processing methods and development of three different model types for the effluent nutrient estimation can be found here: https://ecp.ep.liu.se/index.php/sims/article/view/778

Control strategies for biogas production – SIMS2023

timako on 22. December 2023

In September Tiina, Truls and Malik traveled to Västerås, Sweden, to present our recent research results in the Scandinavian Simulation Societys annual meeting SIMS2023. Master student Truls Ødegaard presented his modeling and control work applied to Veas WRRF biogas plant data. The conference paper describing the Veas data pre-processing, system identification and control strategy design and testing can be found from https://ecp.ep.liu.se/index.php/sims/article/view/768

MaxBiogas Web Simulation

masta6127 on 28. November 2023

The MaxBiogas Web Simulation (WIP and not yet viewable) is fairly simple to interact with. The user can modify two inputs, the heater and intake flowrate. Every real second represents 1 simulated day, and the simulation lasts for 60 real seconds. The daily biogas and temperature are recorded on the dynamic graph. Furthermore, the total produced biogas and wattage is shown below the input sliders. The goal is to modify the input to maximize biogas production while minimizing wattage used.

MaxBiogas project

timako on 25. October 2023

OsloMet collaborates with the Norwegian Water industry to develop digital technologies that can make used water treatment and biogas production more energy-efficient, resource-efficient and minimize environmental impact, and increase digital competence in the water industry in Norway. Our main collaboration partners/ end users include Veas WRRF at Asker, Hias WRRF at Hamar, NRA WRRF at Lillestrøm, and municipal water and sewage departments at Oslo, Bærum and Asker. We collaborate also with technology companies.

The water sector uses about one percent of the total energy consumption in the EU, which generates a high energy bill that is covered by residents of municipalities via municipal taxes. The EU has set a target for energy neutrality in the water sector by 2040. This involves renewable energy production from sewage sludge and heat, CO2-neutral production and a resource-efficient bioeconomy.

The Norwegian sewage industry has ambitious sustainability goals (in Norwegian, norskvann.no), therefore investing in energy-efficient biogas production from sewage sludge is important. Biogas can replace diesel and other fossil energy carriers in the transport industry, increasing income for Water Resource Recovery Facilities (WRRF) and reducing the environmental impacts associated with biogas production and use. The following figure highlights the biogas in the circular economy, or the bioeconomy.