Kinetic Modeling of Methane Production from the Anaerobic Digestion of Wastewater Sludge from a Treatment Plant in Kenitra, Morocco

Abstract

It is necessary to understand the process of anaerobic digestion (AD) of sewage sludge and to find an adequate strategy to improve the efficiency of methane production. In this work, the production of methane and detailed properties of sludge are determined. The physico-chemical parameters of the digester 1 ‘D1’ and the digester 2 ‘D2’ remain in the optimal range of AD stability with a median value of pH (7.82; 7.93); Temperature (36.70; 37.10°C); alkalinity (3.52; 3.58 g/L); and volatile fatty acids (0.47; 0.52 g/L), respectively. This paper focuses on the performance optimization of the methane production by kinetic models of two continuous digesters in a wastewater treatment plant in Kenitra City, Morocco. Mathematical models used in anaerobic digestion are: Modi-fied Gompertz, transference functions, and logistics functions. These kinetic models have benefitted experimental methane production for both digesters. Results show that all the models used are appropriate to optimize the kinetic parameters for producing methane, showing that the transference function is the most suitable model for predicting kinetic results.