Anaerobic digestion (AD) is one of the oldest biotechnological processes and originally referred to biomass degradation under anoxic conditions in both natural and engineered systems. It has been used for decades to treat various waste streams and to produce methane-rich biogas as an important energy carrier, and it has become a major player in electrical power production. AD is a popular, mature technology, and our knowledge about the influencing process parameters as well as about the diverse microbial communities involved in the process has increased dramatically over the last few decades. To avoid competition with food and feed production, the AD feedstock spectrum has constantly been extended to waste products either rich in recalcitrant lignocellulose or containing inhibitory substances such as ammonia, which requires application of various pre-treatments or specific management of the microbial resources. Extending the definition of AD, it can also convert gases rich in hydrogen and carbon dioxide into methane that can substitute natural gas, which opens new opportunities by a direct link to traditional petrochemistry. Furthermore, AD can be coupled with emerging biotechnological applications, such as microbial electrochemical technologies or the production of medium-chain fatty acids by anaerobic fermentation. Ultimately, because of the wide range of applications, AD is still a very vital field in science. This Special Issue highlights some key topics of this research field.

Anaerobic biotechnology is a cost-effective and sustainable means of treating waste and wastewaters that couples treatment processes with the reclamation of useful by-products and renewable biofuels. This means of treating municipal, agricultural, and industrial wastes allows waste products to be converted to value-added products such as biofuels, biofertilizers, and other chemicals. Anaerobic Biotechnology for Bioenergy Production: Principles and Applications provides the reader with basic principles of anaerobic processes alongside practical uses of anaerobic biotechnology options. This book will be a valuable reference to any professional currently considering or working with anaerobic biotechnology options.

Advanced Organic Waste Management: Sustainable Practices and Approaches provides an integrated holistic approach to the challenges associated with organic waste management, particularly related to sustainability, lifecycle assessment, emerging regulations, and novel approaches for resource and energy recovery. In addition to traditional techniques, such as anaerobic digestion, composting, innovative and emerging techniques of waste recycling like hydrothermal carbonization and vermicomposting are included. The book combines the fundamentals and practices of sustainable organic waste management with successful case studies from developed and developing countries, highlighting practical applications and challenges. Sections cover global organic waste generation, encompassing sources and types, composition and characteristics, focus on technical aspects related to various resource recovery techniques like composting and vermicomposting, cover various waste-to-energy technologies, illustrate various environmental management tools for organic waste, present innovative organic waste management practices and strategies complemented by detailed case studies, introduce the circular bioeconomy approach, and more. Presents the fundamentals and practices of sustainable, organic waste management, with emerging regulations and up-to-date analysis on environmental management tools such as lifecycle assessment in a comprehensive manner Offers the latest information on novel concepts and strategies for organic waste management, particularly zero waste and the circular bioeconomy Includes the latest research findings and future perspectives of innovative and emerging techniques of waste recycling, such as hydrothermal carbonization and vermicomposting

This book focuses on biogas production by anaerobic digestion, which is the most popular bioenergy technology of today. Using anaerobic digestion for the production of biogas is a sustainable approach that simultaneously also allows the treatment of organic waste. The energy contained in the substrate is released in the form of biogas, which can be employed as a renewable fuel in diverse industrial sectors. Although biogas generation is considered an established process, it continues to evolve, e.g. by incorporating modifications and improvements to increase its efficiency and its downstream applications. The chapters of this book review the progress made related to feedstock, system configuration and operational conditions. It also addresses microbial pathways utilized, as well as storage, transportation and usage of biogas. This book is an up-to-date resource for scientists and students working on improving biogas production.

This book presents a state-of-the-art report on the treatment of pulp and paper industry effluents using anaerobic technology. It covers a comprehensive range of topics, including the basic reasons for anaerobic treatment, comparison between anaerobic and aerobic treatment, effluent types suitable for anaerobic treatment, design considerations for anaerobic treatment, anaerobic reactor configurations applied for treatment of pulp and paper industry effluents, present status of anaerobic treatment in pulp and paper industry, economic aspects, examples of full scale installations and future trends.

Anaerobic digestion (AD) is by far the most important technology for providing clean renewable energy to millions in rural areas of many developing countries. AD of biowastes produces both biomethane and anaerobic digestate as a byproduct that can be used further as a biofertilizer. Biowastes including sewage, food processing wastes, animal wastes, and lignocellulosic wastes typically produce biogas containing 55%–70% biomethane. In the context of energy consumption, more than 85% of the total energy consumed currently comes from non-renewable fossil resources. Biogas technology can provide sustainable, affordable, and eco-friendly energy through waste recycling. This book provides basic knowledge and recent research on biogas production, focusing on the enhancement of biomethane and production routes integrated with microalgae cultivation or agriculture.

This book presents new application processes in the context of anaerobic digestion (AD), such as phosphorus recovery, microbial fuel cells (MFCs), and seaweed digestion. In addition, it introduces a new technique for the modeling and optimization of AD processes. Chapters 1 and 2 review AD as a technique for converting a range of organic wastes into biogas, while Chapter 3 discusses the recovery of phosphorus from anaerobically digested liquor. Chapters 4 and 5 focus on new techniques for modeling and optimizing AD. Chapters 6 and 7 then describe the state of the art in AD effluent treatment. The book’s final three chapters focus on more recent developments, including microbial fuel cells (MFCs) (Chapter 8), seaweed production (Chapter 9), and enzyme technologies (Chapter 10).

Current Developments in Biotechnology and Bioengineering: Production, Isolation and Purification of Industrial Products provides extensive coverage of new developments, state-of-the-art technologies, and potential future trends, focusing on industrial biotechnology and bioengineering practices for the production of industrial products, such as enzymes, organic acids, biopolymers, and biosurfactants, and the processes for isolating and purifying them from a production medium. During the last few years, the tools of molecular biology and genetic and metabolic engineering have rendered tremendous improvements in the production of industrial products by fermentation. Structured by industrial product classifications, this book provides an overview of the current practice, status, and future potential for the production of these agents, along with reviews of the industrial scenario relating to their production. - Provides information on industrial bioprocesses for the production of microbial products by fermentation - Includes separation and purification processes of fermentation products - Presents economic and feasibility assessments of the various processes and their scaling up - Links biotechnology and bioengineering for industrial process development

The IWA Task Group for Mathematical Modelling of Anaerobic Digestion Processes was created with the aim to produce a generic model and common platform for dynamic simulations of a variety of anaerobic processes. This book presents the outcome of this undertaking and is the result of four years collaborative work by a number of international experts from various fields of anaerobic process technology. The purpose of this approach is to provide a unified basis for anaerobic digestion modelling. It is hoped this will promote increased application of modelling and simulation as a tool for research, design, operation and optimisation of anaerobic processes worldwide. This model was developed on the basis of the extensive but often disparate work in modelling and simulation of anaerobic digestion systems over the last twenty years. In developing ADM1, the Task Group have tried to establish common nomenclature, units and model structure, consistent with existing anaerobic modelling literature and the popular activated sludge models (See Activated Sludge Models ASM1, ASM2, ASM2d and ASM3, IWA Publishing, 2000, ISBN: 1900222248). As such, it is intended to promote widespread application of simulation from domestic (wastewater and sludge) treatment systems to specialised industrial applications. Outputs from the model include common process variables such gas flow and composition, pH, separate organic acids, and ammonium. The structure has been devised to encourage specific extensions or modifications where required, but still maintain a common platform. During development the model has been successfully tested on a range of systems from full-scale waste sludge digestion to laboratory-scale thermophilic high-rate UASB reactors. The model structure is presented in a readily applicable matrix format for implementation in many available differential equation solvers. It is expected that the model will be available as part of commercial wastewater simulation packages. ADM1 will be a valuable information source for practising engineers working in water treatment (both domestic and industrial) as well as academic researchers and students in Environmental Engineering and Science, Civil and Sanitary Engineering, Biotechnology, and Chemical and Process Engineering departments. Contents Introduction Nomenclature, State Variables and Expressions Biochemical Processes Physicochemical Processes Model Implementation in a Single Stage CSTR Suggested Biochemical Parameter Values, Sensitivity and Estimation Conclusions References Appendix A: Review of Parameters Appendix B: Supplementary Matrix Information Appendix C: Integration with the ASM Appendix D: Estimating Stoichiometric Coefficients for Fermentation Scientific & Technical Report No.13

This book presents a Two-Stage Anaerobic Digestion (TSAD) technique for producing hydrogen and methane, following a step-by-step approach in order to guide readers through the experimental verification of the related hypothesis. In the first stage of AD, the reaction conditions are optimized to obtain the maximum amount of hydrogen, while in the second the liquid residue from the first phase is used as a substrate to produce fuel-methane. AD has traditionally been used to reduce the organic content of waste; this results in a biogas that is primarily constituted of CH4 and CO2. Over the last few decades, the conversion of organic matter into hydrogen by means of AD and selecting Hydrogen Producing Bacteria (HPB) has matured into a viable and sustainable technology among the pallet of H2 generation technologies. The combined bio-production of hydrogen and methane from Organic Waste Materials (OWM) is considered to be an ideal way of utilizing waste, and can increase energy efficiency (the substrate Heat Value converted into H2 and CH4 fuel) to roughly 80%, since the energy efficiency of H2-production alone (15%) is not energetically competitive. The two gas streams can be used either separately or in combination (Hytane®), be supplied as civilian gas or used for transportation purposes. All the aspects of this sustainable technology are taken into account, from the basic biochemical implications to engineering aspects, establishing the design criteria and the scale-up procedures for full-scale application. The sustainability of the TSAD method is assessed by applying EROI (Energy Return On Investment) and EPT (Energy Payback Time) criteria, and both the general approach and application to the field of Anaerobic Digestion are illustrated.