Biokinetics of Anaerobic Digestion of Municipal Waste

A study of the biokinetics of anaerobic digestion of municipal solid waste (MSW) was carried out using anaerobic batch digester. From the experimental results, the kinetic parameters (coefficient values) of the digestion of the MSW were determined. The maximum rate of substrate utilization (K), saturation constant (Ks), endogenous decay coefficient (Kd), biomass Yield or microbial growth yield (Y) and maximum specific growth rate (μmax) were found to be 0.144 day -1, 21.23 mg/L, 0.038 day -1, 0.367, and 0.053 day -1 respectively. These values indicate that practical digesters for MSW will require inoculation of the feed with microorganism to increase the rate of digestion. The biokinetics of anaerobic digestion of MSW was well described by first order kinetic model.