Alastair James Ward

TL;DR: Current optimisation techniques associated with anaerobic digestion are reviewed and possible areas where improvements could be made are suggested, including the basic design considerations of a single or multi-stage reactor configuration, the type, power and duration of the mixing regime and the retention of active microbial biomass within the reactor.

TL;DR: This study is the first study applying protein-SIP for analysis of complex biogas samples, a promising method for identifying key microorganisms utilizing specific pathways and revealed that Methanosarcina and Methanoculleus were actively involved in acetate turnover, as were five subspecies of Clostridia.

TL;DR: This inhibition mechanism underlines the importance of carefully regulating the H2 addition rate and gas retention time to the CO2 production rate, H2-uptake rate and growth of hydrogenotrophic methanogens in order to achieve higher CH4 content without the accumulation of acetate and other VFA.

TL;DR: Four methods of monitoring the anaerobic digestion process were studied at pilot scale and NIRS was found to be suitable for estimating the concentrations of acetate, propionate and total volatile fatty acids (VFA) but the error of prediction was too large for accurate quantification.

TL;DR: In this article, the C4 grass miscanthus was evaluated for use as an energy crop for methane production when harvested green in the autumn, and the optimal harvest time was between September and November 2012.