During June and July, the Modela team embarked on an intensive tour across the UK, participating in two of the world’s premier industry events: Aquaculture UK in Glasgow and the World Biogas Expo in Birmingham. Together, these global summits drew thousands of attendees and hundreds of international exhibitors to shape the future of technology, sustainability, and operational efficiency.
Maintaining a strong presence at these landmark events allows us to capture emerging market trends firsthand, identify cutting-edge technological needs, and engage directly with industry leaders. For Modela, this direct connection ensures that our virtual prototyping and simulation solutions continue to address the evolving real-world challenges of the sectors we serve.
The growing value of virtual prototyping
The response to our technologies throughout the tour highlighted a clear shift in how the industry views computational modelling. Modela’s CEO shared key reflections following the events:
“Seeing the level of activity across these industries and the growing importance of modelling-based tools for plant design, operation, and regulatory compliance makes me very optimistic about the future of what we develop at Modela”. “It was great to speak with professionals facing diverse technical challenges, as well as those curious about how virtual prototyping could optimize their specific processes. While there is always an educational aspect, people are clearly becoming much more familiar with modelling and the tangible value it brings to their businesses”.
Solving complex challenges: CFD meets biological processes in digesters
At the World Biogas Expo, operational challenges in anaerobic digestion took centre stage. Fernando Zorrilla, Simulation Scientist at Modela, highlighted how Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) directly addresses these pain points:
“One of the main challenges discussed with industry professionals was achieving effective mixing within anaerobic digesters. Proper mixing not only minimizes operational issues such as foaming and crust formation, but also maximizes biogas production and overall energy recovery”.
“At Modela, we evaluate these critical aspects both prior to construction and during plant operation using CFD. Today, we can even couple biological processes with our CFD models, providing a truly holistic picture of what happens inside the digester”.
