Analysis of a model of hollow-fiber bioreactor wastewater treatment

Abstract

In this work, the effect of neglecting fiber lumen radial concentrations gradients in the one-dimensional mathematical model of isothermal anaerobic acetate biodegradation in hollow-fiber bioreactor has been analyzed. The results show a significant increase of the error resulting from neglection of radial lumen concentration gradients with increase of hollow-fiber diameter value. The limiting fiber diameter value above which the inclusion of lumen concentration profile is recommendable is proposed. To provide a stable convergence in the whole domain of real model solutions, a self-starting procedure based on a shooting method has been developed. © 1993.