Robust regulation of anaerobic digestion processes
Mailleret, L.; Bernard, O.; Steyer, J.P.
Water Science and Technology a Journal of the International Association on Water Pollution Research 48(6): 87-94
2003
ISSN/ISBN: 0273-1223 PMID: 14640204 Document Number: 562357
This paper deals with the problem of controlling anaerobic digestion processes. A two-step (i.e. acidogenesis-methanization) mass balance model was considered for a 1-m3 fixed bed digester treating industrial wine distillery waste water in Narbonne, France. The control law aims at regulating the organic pollution level while avoiding washout of biomass. To this end, a simple output feedback controller was considered, which regulates a variable strongly related to the chemical oxygen demand. Numerical simulations assuming noisy measurements first illustrated the robustness of this control procedure. Then, the regulating procedure was implemented on the considered anaerobic digestion process to validate and demonstrate its efficiency in real life experiments.