Anaerobic Treatment System: A Sustainable Clean Environment and Future Hope of Renewable Energy Production

Abstract

Anaerobic digestion (AD) of organic wastes is a popular biological treatment method. It is a useful technology in waste management and environmental health especially for mitigating greenhouse gases (GHSs). It is an economic process that treats a wide range of low- to high-strength organic materials for the production of value-added products such as feed biobased products and bioenergy through a diverse group of microorganisms. Several anaerobic digestion systems have been widely employed to treat both domestic and industrial wastes before they are discharged into the environment. The application of anaerobic technologies is considered a significantly viable economically sustainable system for treatment of both solid and liquid wastes. Its benefits include removal of organic matter, high treatment efficiency, pathogens removal, production of renewable energy, capable of power generation at a low cost, and less biomass production. Nonetheless, this chapter is a review of the following: different anaerobic digestion systems in the treatment of waste products; the bioeconomic and social importance of using anaerobic reactor for biofuel production and methods of identification and quantification of microbial consortia in an anaerobic reactor. The review further highlights the role of different methanogens as the major group of archaea for biogas production. Other ways to increase biofuel generation are also explored. The chapter concludes that environmental and economic challenges in waste management and energy resource scarcity could be alleviated sufficiently using an anaerobic digestion system.