(564i) Modelling of Anaerobic Digestion of Wastes from Industrial Processes

Generation of wastewater and sludges from various municipal and industrial activities require stabilization of organic pollutants prior to disposal into the environment or for further reuse. Biological treatment processes, anaerobic digestion, in particular mostly adopted for treatment of high organic strength wastes such as municipal sludges and industrial wastewater. The process performance in terms of percentage of Chemical Oxygen Demand (COD) removal of wastes depends on the degradation of organic pollutants by microbial species and their survival conditions. Several substances present in the wastes which inhibit microbial growth kinetics or instabilize process conditions resulted in digester failure. Some of the factors which instabilize process conditions of anaerobic digester are considered in the present investigation. The microbial growth studies have also been carried out under steady state or transient conditions by microbial growth kinetic models. The inhibitory effects on performance of digester by the presence inhibitory substances in terms of high influent substrate concentration are also considered. Simulation of the developed model under transient conditions can quantify the extent of process stability which is considered to be of paramount importance in selecting a suitability of a process for specific applications.