Historical Use of Anaerobic Digestion
It has long been common practice in Europe to use Anaerobic Digestion at sewage works to treat the sludges resulting from biological treatment.
It has been less common over the same period to use AD to treat industrial effluents, agricultural sludges although the are a number of examples dating back to the 1950s.
Over the past ten years or so, with the introduction of a requirement that the separated organic fraction of municipal solid waste (MSW), be treated before landfill disposal, AD has been adopted for this purpose as well.
According to the Composting Association there are now more than 260 agro-industrial plants in Europe, and worldwide there are about a further 70 plants using MSW as the main feedstock.
Anaerobic digestion has long been popular in India where a large number of small and simple plants are in use.
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