Anaero Technology, a UK-based research company specializing in anaerobic digestion (AD), is dedicated to advancing the field on a global scale. Anaerobic digestion involves breaking down degradable materials such as food waste, agricultural by-products, energy crops, wastewater sludge, and food processing waste to recover energy and fertilizers, making it the most sustainable treatment route currently available.
The increasing demands for treatment and environmental sustainability require modern AD plants to adhere to high operational and safety standards, produce high energy output, generate good quality digestate, and ultimately, be profitable. To effectively manage these demands, tools are needed to assess the biogas potential of feedstock in a timely manner to determine pricing, yield, and potential impact from inhibitory feeds.
While AD operators have various process control tools at their disposal, such as monitoring pH, Lab volatile fatty acids (VFA), CH4/CO2 content, and VFA to alkalinity ratio (FOSTAC), these tools are only useful once the feedstock has entered the AD plant. Anaero Technology emphasizes that these tools do not provide confirmation of the treatability or toxic behavior of feedstock entering AD plants, highlighting the need for more comprehensive assessment methods.
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