Optimization of Biomethane Productivity of an Industrial Anaerobic Digestion Process

This study aims to determine the optimal operating conditions of an industrial agriculture digester to maximize the biomethane productivity. This involves identifying key decision variables, such as the input substrate feed rate and digestate recirculation flow, while ensuring compliance with critical operational constraints, including command saturation, biomethane production, Organic Loading Rate (OLR), and Hydraulic Retention Time (HRT) limits. Advanced optimization techniques, specifically genetic algorithms, are considered to fine-tune process parameters to achieve the specifications. Additionally, multiple scenarios are explored regarding the premix feeding strategy of input materials, ensuring an optimized and adaptive approach to enhance overall system performance and efficiency. The proposed solution leads to about 11 % increase of the biomethane production over a month in comparison to an existing initial solution.