Anaerobic digestion

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Anaerobic digestion is a sequence of processes by which microorganisms break down biodegradable material in the absence of oxygen. The process is used for industrial or domestic purposes to manage waste or to produce fuels. Much of the fermentation used industrially to produce food and drink products, as well as home fermentation, uses anaerobic digestion. Anaerobic digestion reduces sludge volume and pathogen content while generating methane-rich biogas that can be used for renewable energy production. The liquid remainder, digestate, can be further treated and, in some cases, beneficially reused. Anaerobic digestion occurs naturally in some soils and in lake and oceanic basin sediments, where it is usually referred to as "anaerobic activity". This is the source of marsh-gas methane, as discovered by Alessandro Volta in 1776. Anaerobic digestion comprises four stages: hydrolysis, acidogenesis, acetogenesis, and methanogenesis. The digestion process begins with bacterial hydrolysis of the...

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