Concept

Increasing waste treatment and disposal costs are now gradually forcing waste abatement and byproduct recovery. Nevertheless, the ultimate goal of waste-free (clean) production still seems far away from realization. Although numerous waste and byproduct recovery processes have been introduced, anaerobic digestion has a unique and integrative potential, simultaneously acting as a waste treatment and recovery process. For this reason, numerous applications have been introduced covering all areas of waste recovery in agriculture, industry and communities. In the present situation anaerobic digestion is considered one of the best technologies for treating industrial wastewater with a high organic load. The use of anaerobic digestion has also increased, in recent years, with the treatment of organic waste from households (biowaste), mixed with other industrial organic waste and animal manure (co-digestion).