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Kinetic Model for Substrate Utilization and Methane Production in the Anaerobic Digestion of Organic Feeds
Author(s) -
Barthakur Archana,
Bora Munindra,
Singh H. Devendra
Publication year - 1991
Publication title -
biotechnology progress
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.572
H-Index - 129
eISSN - 1520-6033
pISSN - 8756-7938
DOI - 10.1021/bp00010a012
Subject(s) - anaerobic digestion , hydrolysis , substrate (aquarium) , chemistry , limiting , fermentation , anaerobic exercise , methane , rate equation , kinetics , thermodynamics , organic chemistry , ecology , physics , biology , mechanical engineering , physiology , quantum mechanics , engineering
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 Contoistype 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.