Anaerobic digestion of palm oil mill effluent and condensation water waste : an overall kinetic model for methane production and substrate utilization

A kinetic generalized model, which was based on the Monod and Controls equations for methane production and substrate utilization during the anaerobic digestion of palm oil mill effluent and condensation water, took into account the processes of hydrolysis, substrate uptake and microbial growth. It was validated on continuous feed completely-mixed anaerobic digesters having a working volume of 2 litres and an operating temperature of 35C. Although the range of substrate concentrations and hydraulic detention were different for the 2 wastewaters, good agreement was obtained between the experimental and calculated values for the total substrate concentration and the specific methane yield corresponding to each of the hydraulic detention periods. There are 35 references.