title: From a black-box to a glass-box system: the attempt towards a plant-wide automation concept for full-scale biogas plants.
abstract: Biogas plants gain worldwide increasing importance due to several advantages. However, concerning the equipment most of the existing biogas plants are low-tech plants. E.g., from the point of view of instrumentation, control and automation (ICA) most plants are black-box systems. Consequently, practice shows that many biogas plants are operated sub-optimally and/or in critical (load) ranges. To solve these problems, some new biogas plants have been equipped with modern machines and ICA equipment. In this paper, the authors will show details and discuss operational results of a modern agricultural biogas plant and the resultant opportunities for the implementation of a plant-wide automation.
authors.affiliation: GKU-Gesellschaft für kommunale Umwelttechnik mbH, Heinrichstrasse 17/19, 36037 Fulda, Germany. Juergen.Wiese@uewag.de
authors.forename: J
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Wiese
authors.forename: R
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: König
mesh_terms: D000383:Agriculture / Q000379:methods; D001331:Automation; D001673:Biodegradation, Environmental; D001674:Bioelectric Energy Sources; D003246:Conservation of Energy Resources / Q000379:methods*; D003362:Cost-Benefit Analysis; D004560:Electricity; D004867:Equipment Design; D005740:Gases; D006862:Hydrogen Sulfide / Q000737:chemistry; D010100:Oxygen / Q000737:chemistry; D012037:Refuse Disposal / Q000295:instrumentation / Q000379:methods*; D013053:Spectrophotometry / Q000379:methods; D003313:Zea mays
chemical_list: D005740:Gases; D010100:Oxygen; D006862:Hydrogen Sulfide