The microbial diversity and metabolic potential of a methanogenic consortium residing in a 3785-liter anaerobic digester, fed with wastewater algae, was analyzed using 454 pyrosequencing technology. DNA was extracted from anaerobic sludge material and used in metagenomic analysis through PCR amplification of the methyl-coenzyme M reductase α subunit (mcrA) gene using primer sets ML, MCR, and ME...

A 20–L attached–growth anaerobic system with floating plastic Ballast rings as a medium has been studied for swine wastewater [chemical oxygen demand (COD) = 1,925 to 2,033 mg/L; total suspended solids (TSS) = 1,051 to 1,184 mg/L] treatment at the mesophilic temperature of 353C. The plastic Ballast rings had a specific surface area of 108 m2/m3 and a density of 0.98 g/cm3 and filled the upper h...

Mathematical modelling has proven to be very useful in process design, operation and optimisation. A recent trend in WWTP modelling is to include the different subunits in so-called plant-wide models rather than focusing on parts of the entire process. One example of a typical plant-wide model is the coupling of an upstream activated sludge plant (including primary settler, and secondary clarif...

This paper describes the development of a steady-state anaerobic digestion model for biological sulphate reduction using primary sewage sludge (PSS) as substrate. The model comprises: a chemical oxygen demand (COD) based hydrolysis kinetics part in which the PSS biodegradable COD and sulphate removals are calculated for given hydraulic and sludge retention times; a C, H, O, N, P, S, COD and cha...

Kitchen (food waste) was collected from hostels of Cancer Hospital & Research Institute (CHRI), Gwalior’s Mess as feedstock for bio-reactor which works as anaerobic digester system to produce biogas energy. Production of biogas ,used as energy source, will be more cost effective, eco-friendly, cut down on landfill waste, generate a high-quality renewable fuel, and reduce CH4 and CO2 emissions, ...

A government-sponsored initiative in Indonesia to design and implement low-cost anaerobic digestion systems resulted in 21 full-scale systems with the aim to satisfy the cooking fuel demands of rural households owning at least one cow. The full-scale design consisted of a 0.3 m diameter PVC pipe, which was operated as a conventional plug-flow system. The system generated enough methane to power...

Small-scale household digesters have been promoted across Asia as a sustainable way of handling manure. The major advantages are that they produce biogas and reduce odor. However their disadvantages include the low recycling of nutrients, because digestate is dilute and therefore difficult to transport, and the loss of biogas as a result of cracks and the intentional release of excess biogas. I...

The problem of slaughterhouse waste water can be resolved by mixing it with serum from lacteal industry to produce a biogas. The effect of serum addition on the anaerobic co-digestion of solid and liquid slaughterhouse waste has been studied. The experimental device consisted of a continuous digester by recirculation of biogas produced in the anaerobic digestion. The input effluent was a mixtur...

Sewage sludge management is an energy intensive process. Anaerobic digestion contributes to energy efficiency improvement but is limited by the biological process. A review has been conducted prior to experimentation in order to evaluate the mass and energy balances on anaerobic digestion followed by gasification of digested sludge. The purpose was to improve energy recovery and reuse. Calculat...

This paper demonstrates how a complex model like the IWA Anaerobic Digestion Model no. 1 can be applied to gain more insight in the anaerobic process and particularly in the dynamics of the digester. The illustrated modelling approach avoids laborious measurements to characterise the influent according the extensive list of components defined in the model. It rather uses the model to make a bet...