Modelling anaerobic degradation of complex wastewater. I: model development

Complex wastewater is defined in this context as containing significant lev els of fats, proteins or particulates. High-rate anaerobic treatment of com plex wastewater is becoming more popular due to economic and environmental advantages. However, treatment is complicated because of the high levels of solids and fats and lack of knowledge of degradation mechanisms. This pape r is the first part of a study of a structural model describing degradation of complex wastewater. A structural anaerobic model is developed which ext ends previous research, of which the most recent described the anaerobic de gradation of soluble protein (Ramsay, I.R., 1997. Modelling and Control of High-Rate Anaerobic Wastewater Treatment Systems. Ph.D. Thesis, Department of Chemical Engineering, The University of Queensland, Brisbane, Australia) . This study incorporates hydrolysis of particulates and long chain fatty a cid (LCFA) beta-oxidation. A set of physico-chemical equations describes ga s transfer and ionic reactions and structured biochemical equations describ e biological and enzymatic reactions. A generic parameter estimation method ology for application to full-scale systems is also proposed. (C) 2000 Else vier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.