Date of Defense

4-18-2017

Date of Graduation

4-2017

Department

Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering

First Advisor

Bade Shrestha

Second Advisor

Muralidhar Ghantasala

Abstract

The general concept of this project is to design, simulate, and build a biogas separator system that will also store the separated methane and carbon dioxide within pressure vessels. This system is constructed of many subcomponents that will combine to separate the biogas and store the methane (CH4) and carbon dioxide (CO2). The components included in the project consist of a liquid-gas separator vessel, two heat exchangers, one methane gas compressor, and one pressure vessel each to hold methane and carbon dioxide each. While the base goal in this project was to design and simulate the necessary parts to theoretically complete the process of separating the methane from the carbon dioxide, a 1:1 scale model of the system to demonstrate simulated designs or if possible provide a working model of the design system was also undertaken. Using the thermodynamic properties of methane and carbon dioxide, the biogas is first compressed and then cooled back to room temperature. At the increased pressure, carbon dioxide is in the liquid state while methane remains a gas at room temperature. This allows the utilization of liquid-gas separator to separate the liquid carbon dioxide from the gaseous methane. The liquid carbon dioxide is then stored in a vessel directly from the separator. The gaseous methane is then again to be compressed and cooled to the working pressure needed and stored within a pressure vessel. Because the system is in its beginning iterations, an actual working prototype was sought after, but the preliminary stages of design, simulation, and proof of concept were focused on. Even with these three preliminary stages being focused on, a prototype was still created that will provide an excellent starting point for future teams taking this project to the next iterations of the design process.

Access Setting

Honors Thesis-Open Access

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