Learning to Operate Anaerobic Bioreactors

This chapter describes the main parameters and the different techniques used to characterize an anaerobic bioreactor and how to apply the obtained information to learn how to operate it. In this kind of biological systems, the large number of processes, operating parameters and removed compounds involved makes necessary to combine knowledge from both Microbiology and Chemical Reactor Engineering. The main difficulties encountered on the operation (start-up, operation) of anaerobic reactors are commented. In each part, the pertinent measurements for improving the bioreactor performance in practice are introduced.