ABSTRACT
Anaerobic digestion (AD) has long been recognized as a means of producing energy in the form of biogas while at the same time stabilizing waste organic matter. Historically the major applications of the process were in the treatment of wastewater biosolids and the stabilization of animal slurries and manures, using simple reactor types and processes. Over the last 30 years the technology has developed rapidly to open up new applications in the treatment of process industry wastewaters, the stabilization of municipal solid wastes and the production of energy from crops grown specifically for this purpose. Along with these practical innovations and technology developments, our understanding of the process and its microbiology has also increased allowing optimization of the process to fit this growing range of roles.
