Kinetic model for substrate utilization and methane production in the anaerobic digestion of organic feeds

Journal Article · · Biotechnology Progress; (United States)

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1021/bp00010a012· OSTI ID:5947662

Barthakur, A; Bora, M; Singh, H D ^[1]

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1. Regional Research Lab., Assam (India)

A kinetic model for anaerobic digestion of organic substrates is presented. Two complementary kinetic equations, one each for substrate utilization and methane production, are derived. The model equations take into account extracellular hydrolysis of complex substrates and consider the hydrolyzed products as the limiting substrates for cell growth and product formation according to Monod kinetics. The equations are applied to the experimental data on the anaerobic digestion of a variety of feeds reported in the literature with reasonable agreement of the predicted and observed values. When substrate hydrolysis is poor and rate limiting, the equations are reduced to a Contois-type equation. On the other hand, if no hydrolysis of the substrate is involved as in the case of simple and soluble substrate, the equations take the form of a Monod-type relationship. Thus, the equations represent a generalized kinetic expression for fermentation relating the Monod and Contois equations, which hold good in two extreme cases.

• OSTI ID: 5947662
• Journal Information: Biotechnology Progress; (United States), Vol. 7:4; ISSN 8756-7938
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

09 BIOMASS FUELS
METHANE
BIOSYNTHESIS
ORGANIC MATTER
ANAEROBIC DIGESTION
BIOMASS
EQUATIONS
KINETICS
MATHEMATICAL MODELS
SUBSTRATES
ALKANES
BIOCONVERSION
DIGESTION
ENERGY SOURCES
HYDROCARBONS
MANAGEMENT
MATTER
ORGANIC COMPOUNDS
PROCESSING
RENEWABLE ENERGY SOURCES
SYNTHESIS
WASTE MANAGEMENT
WASTE PROCESSING
090900* - Biomass Fuels- Processing- (1990-)