Prediction Modelling to Enhance Anaerobic Co-digestion Process of OFMSW and Bio-flocculated Sludge Using ANN

Artificial neural networks (ANNs) simulate an anaerobic co-digestion process of Organic Fraction of Municipal Solid Waste (OFMSW) and bio-flocculated sludge for a mesophilic lab-scale semi-continuous feed reactor. The operational, substrate quality and process control parameters such as Organic Loading Rate, Hydraulic Retention Time, pH, VFA/Alkalinity ratio and Total Solids are input variables and methane yield and Volatile Solids removal are outputs for ANN modelling. The lab-scale experimental results are used to develop a prediction model using fitting application for ANN. The network architecture was optimized to achieve accurate predictions, resulting in a 5-19-2 architecture for methane yield and a 5-17-2 architecture for %VSremoval. The training was performed using the Bayesian Regularization (trainbr) algorithm, leading to high coefficients of determination (R2) of 0.953 and 0.978 for methane yield and %VSremoval, respectively. The results demonstrate the effectiveness of neural network-based modelling in capturing complex relationships within the methane yield process, facilitating accurate prediction of crucial output parameters.