A Review of Critical Parameters Influencing Production of Flammable Gases (Biogas) in Anaerobic Digestion Process

The population and urbanization growth as experienced during the last few decades has had significant impact on the overall energy use around the world. The growth has accelerated environmental challenges associated with greenhouse gases. In order to address the challenges, recent studies have indicated that, the wider use of flammable gases produced organically from human sewage sludge is one of the prospective renewable sources of energy. One of the proven waste treatment technologies and feasible solution for reducing climate change is to extract the flammable gases by Anaerobic Digestion (AD). AD systems have many proven significant benefits, as they are flexible and self-adaptive to different climates, and they are time and cost effective to maintain. However, much of the recent studies have focused on improving AD systems by considering a range of operating conditions. This paper reviews the literature on anaerobic digestion with special emphasis on the process parameters that affect the performance of the anaerobic digestion process. The main focus is on the steps in the sewage anaerobic digestions process, the biogas production, sewage gas potential and methane upgrading