DESC:The best and other modes for carrying out the present invention are presented in terms of the embodiments, herein depicted in FIG. 1. The embodiments are described herein for illustrative purposes and are subject to many variations. It is understood that various omissions and substitutions of equivalents are contemplated as circumstances may suggest or render expedient, but are intended to cover the application or implementation without departing from the spirit or scope of the present invention. Further, it is to be understood that the phraseology and terminology employed herein are for the purpose of the description and should not be regarded as limiting. Any heading utilized within this description is for convenience only and has no legal or limiting effect.
The terms “a” and “an” herein do not denote a limitation of quantity, but rather denote the presence of at least one of the referenced item.
The present invention is an automated twin balloon biogas compression system which is adapted to combine the biogas production process and compression process into a single system. Referring to FIG. 1 of the drawings, the system comprise a biogas digestor (108) which produces Biogas, which is coupled to a multichannel valve (101) that is adapted to be in two positions, position 1 (102) and position 2 (103). In an alternate embodiment, the multichannel valve can be in more than two positions. The multichannel wall is made of a stainless steel body and has an acrylic plunger which helps to change between the two positions to allow the flow of biogas. The multichannel wall can be made of any other strong and durable material to handle pressure of biogas. The plunger can be made of any other flexible and durable material to provide an each movement of the valve to be in different position and to reduce down wear and tear of the plunger while changing the position of valve. The system also includes a compressor (106) and a set of midterm storage devices namely a first storage (110) and a second storage (112). In an alternate embodiment, there can be more than two midterm storage devices and the number of midterm storages devices are linked to number of positions a multichannel valve can be in. The compressor (106) is coupled to the multichannel valve (101) for receiving the biogas and further storing the biogas in temporary container or supplied further for further usage. The compressor (106) received the biogas from the multichannel valve (101) which is received from either the first storage (110) or the second storage (112) based on the position of the multichannel valve (101). The midterm storage devices are made of neoprene. In yet another embodiment, the midterm storage device can be of any other durable material, other than neoprene, which can handle compression of biogas. The midterm storage devices consist of pressure sensors to identify pressure in the storage devices at a particular time frame. The system also includes a controller (104) which receives the indication from the pressure sensors and based on the pressure in the midterm storage devices it controls positioning of the multichannel valve (101).
When the multichannel valve (101) is in position 1 (102), the biogas is conveyed into the first storage (110). When the first storage (110) is filled up to capacity, the pressure sensor on the first storage (110) senses a particular pressure and sends an indication to the controller (104) which identifies that the first storage (110) is full and hence triggers a change in the multichannel valve(101) configuration. Hence the Multichannel valve shifts the acrylic plunger to position 2 (103).
Simultaneously the compressor (106) is switched on. At this position the biogas being generated in the digestor (108) flows into the empty second storage (112), while the gas from first storage (110) is being compressed and stored in a temporary storage vessel (107). When second storage (112) becomes full, the pressure sensor senses the pressure and sends it to the controller (104) which triggers the compressor (106) to stop and the position of the multichannel valve (101) is changed to position 1 (102). When second storage (112) gets filled up, the pressure sensor on second storage (112) triggers the motor on the multichannel valve to move the plunger back to position 1 (102).
The compressor (106) now has access to second storage (112), while the biogas is being filled up in first storage (110). This process, thus cycles between position 1 and position 2, thus decoupling the slow continuous process of biogas generation and the fast intermittent process of compressing the gas. The controller (106) can be programmed to send out an alarm message in case any of the components malfunction.
In one embodiment, when the pressure sensors senses emptying of the midterm devices, than they send the pressure to the controller (104) and based on that the controller (104) stops the compressor (106).
The change in position (102, 103) of the multichannel valve (101) can be triggered by either emptying of the midterm storages or filling of the midterm storages or combination thereof.
,CLAIMS:1. A system for compressing and storing biogas while the biogas is being produced, the system comprising:
- a digester (108) adapted to produce biogas;
- a compressor (106) adapted to compress biogas produced by the digestor (108) and to store the biogas after compression;
- a set of midterm storage devices (110, 112) adapted to store the biogas and to transfer the stored biogas to the compressor (106), the midterm storage device (110,112) comprises a pressure sensor adapted to detect a pressure inside the midterm storage device; and
- a multichannel valve (101) comprises a plunger adapted to be in more than one position (102, 103) based on the pressure in the midterm storage device (110, 112) to control inflow of the biogas into the midterm storage devices (110, 112) from the digester (108) and outflow of the biogas from the midterm storage devices (110, 112) to the compressor.

2. The system according to claim 1 comprising a controller (104) adapted to receive the pressure from the pressure sensor and adapted to control positioning of the multichannel valve(101).

3. The system according to claim 2, wherein a position (102, 103) of the valve is linked to either inflow or outflow of the biogas with respect to atleast one of the midterm storage devices (110, 112).

4. The system according to any of the claims 1 to 3, wherein the system comprises a pair of midterm storage devices, a first storage (110) and a second storage (112).

5. The system according to claim 4, wherein the pair of midterm storages devices (110, 112) are made of neoprene.

6. The system according to the claim 4, wherein the multichannel valve (101) is adapted to be in two positions (102, 103), wherein a first position (102) of the valve is adapted to allow flow of the biogas into the first storage (110) and to allow outflow of the biogas from the second storage (112), and in a second position (103) the valve is adapted to allow flow of the biogas into the second storage (112) and to allow outflow of the biogas from the first storage (110).

7. The system according to any of the claims 1 to 6 comprises:
- means for generating the feedback adapted to receive a data related to functioning of the system.

8. The system according to the claim 7, wherein the data related to functioning of the system comprises a data related to rate of compression of the biogas, a data related to filling of biogas into the midterm storage devices (110, 112), a data related to production of the biogas by the digestor (108), a data related to change in position (102, 103) of the plunger, a data related to emptying of the midterm storage devices (110, 112), or a combination thereof.

9. The system according to any of the claim 7 or 8 comprising:
- means for alerting adapted to compare the data related to functioning of the system and based on comparison adapted to raise an alert related to functioning of part/s of the system.

10. A multichannel valve (101) for controlling the flow of biogas in a compression system, the valve comprises a plunger adapted to be in more than one position (102, 103), wherein the compression system comprises:
-a digester (101) adapted to produce biogas;
- a compressor (106) adapted to compress biogas produced by the digestor (108) and to store the biogas after compression;
- a set of midterm storage devices (110, 112) adapted to store the biogas and to transfer the stored biogas to the compressor (106), the midterm storage devices (110, 112) comprises a pressure sensor adapted to detect a pressure inside the midterm storage devices (110, 112),
Wherein, the plunger adapted to be in more than one position (102, 103) based on the pressure in the midterm storage devices (110, 112) to control inflow of the biogas into the midterm storage devices (110, 112) from the digester (108) and outflow of the biogas from the midterm storage devices (110, 112) to the compressor (106).