How Anaerobic Digestion Works
What’s it all about?
Anaerobic Digestion is the process where bacteria break down organic material in the absence of oxygen to make biogas. There is four main stages to this process:
Hydrolysis
In this process complex proteins and carbohydrates are broken down into smaller molecules of simple sugars and amino acids. The smaller molecules are then available for other bacteria to breakdown.
Acidogenesis
The small molecules are broken down by the bacteria to make Carbon Dioxide, Ammonia, Hydrogen, Hydrogen Sulfide and other short chain fatty acids.
Acetogenesis
During this stage the short change fatty acids are further broken down into acetic acid, hydrogen and carbon dioxide
Methanogenesis
This is the final stage of anaerobic digestion. During this stage of the process methanogenic bacteria consume the intermediate products produced in the previous stages to produce methane.
The biogas produced is then used to power a CHP unit to generate renewable electricity.