Expert System for Control of

Anaerobic Digesters
P. C. Pullammanappallil,1* S. A. Svoronos,1 D. P. Chynoweth,2
G. Lyberatos3
1

Department of Chemical Engineering, University of Florida, Gainesville,

Florida 32611; telephone: 61 7 3365 4725; fax: 61 7 3365 4726;
e-mail: pratap@cheque.uq.edu.au
2
Department of Agricultural and Biological Engineering, University of
Florida, Gainesville, Florida 32611
3
Department of Chemical Engineering, Institute of Chemical Engineering
and High Temperature Chemical Processes, University of Patras, GR-26110
Patras, Greece
Received 24 January 1997; accepted 5 August 1997

Abstract: Continuous anaerobic digesters are systems

that present challenging control problems including the
possibility that an unmeasured disturbance can change
the sign of the steady-state process gain. An expert system is developed that recognizes changes in the sign of
process gain and implements appropriate control laws.
The sole on-line measured variable is the methane production rate, and the manipulated input is the dilution
rate. The expert system changes the dilution rate according to one of four possible strategies: a constrained conventional set-point control law, a constant yield control
law (CYCL) that is nearly optimal for the most common
cause of change in the sign of the process gain, batch
operation, or constant dilution rate. The algorithm uses a
t test for determining when to switch to the CYCL and
returns to the conventional set-point control law with
bumpless transfer. The expert system has proved successful in several experimental tests: severe overload;
mild, moderate, and severe underload; and addition of
phenol in low and high levels. Phenol is an inhibitor that
in high concentrations changes the sign of the process
gain. 1998 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. Biotechnol Bioeng 58:
1322, 1998.

Keywords: anaerobic digestion; biological wastewater

treatment; bioprocess; process control; expert system

INTRODUCTION
Anaerobic digestion is a biochemical process that converts
organic matter into methane and carbon dioxide along with
the production of bacterial biomass. It is primarily used for
waste and wastewater treatment but can also be used for
energy production. The process essentially occurs in two
steps. In the first step the organic matter in the feed is
fermented to intermediates such as volatile organic acids,
carbon dioxide, and hydrogen by the acidogenic bacteria.
The methanogenic bacteria use these intermediates for
growth and produce methane and carbon dioxide. One of the

* Present address: Department of Chemical Engineering, The University of Queensland, St. Lucia, Qld 4072, Australia
Correspondence to: Dr. Pratap C. Pullammanappallil

1998 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.

major drawbacks of anaerobic digestion processes is that

they are very sensitive to disturbances. Disturbances such as
a large feed overload (increase in feed substrate concentration), a large feed underload (decrease in feed substrate
concentration), or an inhibitor entering with the feed (hereafter referred to as a feed inhibitor) can cause failure of the
process. The methanogenic bacteria are easily inhibited by
these disturbances, causing methane production to decrease.
However, the acidogenic bacteria are more tolerant to these
disturbances and continue to produce volatile organic acids.
This results in an imbalance in the process and causes an
accumulation of the volatile organic acids, which can ultimately lead to failure of the process when methane production ceases. Process control strategies need to be developed
to solve or reduce the extent of the problem. Several investigators have developed approaches for controlling anaerobic digesters (Denac et al., 1990; Dochain et al., 1989, 1991;
Mathiot et al., 1992; Podruzny and van den Berg, 1984;
Polihronakis et al., 1993; Renard et al., 1988; Rozzi et al.,
1985; Russel et al., 1985; Whitmore and Lloyd, 1986; Whitmore et al., 1987; Wilcox et al., 1995). However, these
approaches did not consider the possibility of process failure due to a feed inhibitor. Such a disturbance considerably
complicates the control problem because it may change the
sign of the process gain (thus rendering conventional offseteliminating controllers unstable).
An expert control system for preventing an imbalance of
continuous glucose fed digesters is presented here. This
system addresses the rejection of disturbances in the form of
feed overload and a feed inhibitor. Because digester failure
requires a period of several months for recommissioning,
the primary objective of the expert system is to ensure maximal safety and not to maximize methane production or feed
throughput.
The control scheme proposed here uses methane production rate as the principal measured variable and dilution rate
(4 flow rate operating volume) as the manipulated variable. Methane production rate is not only a readily measured

CCC 0006-3592/98/010013-10

quantity, but it also has the advantage of providing an early

indication of digester imbalance compared to other indicators like pH depression or volatile organic acid accumulation. The expert system utilizes four control laws, the essential ones being a conventional set-point control law and
a control law that maintains the volumetric reactor yield
constant. The latter is appropriate when the set point cannot
be maintained, and it is the near optimal response to the
most common cause of change in the sign of process gain
(Pullammanappallil et al., 1991). The algorithm logic uses
statistical criteria (t test) and future projections in deciding
which control law to utilize. Where safety is not compromised, switching between control laws is done via bumpless
transfer.
Our expert system was experimentally tested with a variety of disturbances: severe feed overload; mild, moderate,
and severe feed underload; and a feed inhibitor (in the form
of phenol addition). Without feedback control the digester
would have failed when subjected to the severe feed overload, severe feed underload, or phenol in the feed. With only
conventional feedback control the digester would not have
survived the large feed underload or phenol addition. However, the expert system avoided digester failure for all these
disturbances.
CONTROL PROBLEM
An increase in dilution rate in a continuous anaerobic digester will have the following effects (and similar effects
can take place in other continuous bioreactors too). The first
effect is that it will increase the substrate concentration
(glucose in the present case) that is rapidly (relative to other
bioreactions in the digester) converted to intermediates such
as volatile organic acids, hydrogen, and carbon dioxide. An
increase in the concentration of these intermediates will
result in a higher methanogen growth rate accompanied by
a higher methane production rate, as long as these intermediates are not in inhibitory levels. Intermediates that are
inhibitory in high concentrations are volatile organic acids,
primarily propionic and butyric acids, according to the prevailing school of thought (Andrews and Graef, 1970; Bryers, 1985; Hill, 1982; Smith et al., 1988), or hydrogen according to Pullammanappallil (1993).
The second effect is if an inhibitor enters with the feed, a
dilution rate increase will result in an increase in the inhibitor concentration that will lower the methanogen growth
rate.
Thus, under normal operation (when the concentrations
of the intermediates are low and in the absence of a feed
inhibitor), an increase in the dilution rate will increase the
methane rate; i.e., the process has positive gain. If, however,
feed inhibitors are present in high concentrations, in response to an increase in dilution rate it may lower the
growth rate more than the accompanying increase of substrate will raise it, thus resulting in the overall effect of
lower methane production rate. Thus, this unmeasured disturbance has the potential of changing the sign of the pro-

14

cess gain. If for some reason intermediates have built up to

inhibitory levels, the sign of the process gain will also
change to negative.
To further complicate the problem, the dilution rate
should not exceed the specific growth rate for prolonged
periods of time. If this occurs the methanogens start washing out, the only stable steady state being that of zero bacterial biomass concentration (and therefore zero methane
production rate and zero steady-state gain). Given that inhibitors or feed underloads lower the specific growth rate, it
may be that the normal methane production rate is unachievable and controllers attempts to reach it may lead to
digester washout.
CONTROL STRATEGIES
This section briefly describes the control laws utilized by
the expert system.
Constrained Conventional Set-Point Control Law
A feed overload, if uncompensated, would lead to an increase in the levels of intermediates that are inhibitory in
high concentrations. A buildup of inhibitory intermediates
could lead to digester failure. Because feed overloads are
accompanied by an initial increase in the methane rate, a
conventional positive-gain control law would respond by
lowering the feed rate and thus lowering the concentrations
of the inhibitory intermediates in the reactor. This would
prevent inhibitory intermediate buildup and thus save the
digester.
For this reason, under normal conditions the expert system operates the digester under conventional positive-gain
set-point control. The set point to be maintained is the methane production rate obtained when the reactor was run at a
moderate dilution rate (e.g., 0.05/day) with normal feed
concentrations. The control law is constrained so that the
dilution rate does not exceed the maximum specific growth
rate (for a healthy digester) and to avoid large changes
because these can be detrimental to the culture. For the same
reason conservative tuning is required. A choice that was
used successfully is the internal model control (IMC; Morari and Zafiriou, 1989) with controller tuning based on an
experimental step response curve. IMC was chosen because
of the ease of tuning its parameter from a step response. In
fact, it has been shown that for a large number of single
input, single output applications in the process industries,
the IMC design procedure leads to proportional integral
derivative (PID) controllers, occasionally augmented by a
first-order lag, and the only tuning parameter is the closed
loop time constant (Morari et al., 1984).
Constant Yield Control Law (CYCL)
Conventional positive-gain set-point control would have adverse effects if implemented when the process gain has been
reversed due to a feed inhibitor. Pullammanappallil et al.

BIOTECHNOLOGY AND BIOENGINEERING, VOL. 58, NO. 1, APRIL 5, 1998

(1991) showed that a control law that changes the dilution

rate D in proportion to the methane production rate,
Qmethane; i.e.,
D(t) 4 kQmethane(t)
closely approximates the optimal response to noncompetitive feed inhibitors of the methanogens. If the active volume
of the digester does not change, the above policy keeps the
volumetric yield (ratio of the volume of methane produced
to the volume fed) constant. A value very close to the optimal value of the proportionality constant k can be easily
determined, because under normal operating conditions virtually all of the substrate is converted to methane and carbon dioxide; thus, k can be taken as the ratio of dilution rate
to methane production rate under normal operating conditions. It should be observed that the CYCL has negative
steady-state gain, thus it is appropriate when the process
gain changes sign. Harmon et al. (1990) first suggested the
use of the CYCL for operating anaerobic digesters.
Batch Operation (Dilution Rate = 0)
A change in the sign of the steady-state gain may be due to
a buildup of intermediates to inhibitory levels. Alternatively, if the sign changed due to a feed inhibitor, the expert
system may have operated at high dilution rates (while attempting to maintain the set point) before abandoning the
conventional set-point control law. This might have lead to
a buildup of the potentially inhibitory intermediates. For
this reason it would be beneficial to the culture to spend
some time without the addition of new feed so that the
intermediates are consumed to well below inhibitory levels.
The batch phase also provides the benefit of increasing the
methanogen population. As a matter of fact an initial batch
phase is also suggested by the optimal control law of Pullammanappallil et al. (1991).
Constant Dilution Rate
If a severe underload drops the methanogen maximum specific growth rate below the dilution rate, neither the conventional set-point control law nor the CYCL is suitable.
The first will simply speed up the cultures path toward
washout, while the second will keep decreasing the dilution
rate driving the digester toward a batch state. An appropriate
dilution rate policy would be to keep it constant at a value
below the specific growth rate.
EXPERT SYSTEM
The expert system is outlined in the flow diagram of Figure
1. As long as the methane production rate (CH4) remains
within a normal range, CH4min < CH4 < CH4max, the
digester is operated using a conservatively tuned set-point
controller. The normal range should be chosen to include
variations due to measurement noise and to frequently encountered mild disturbances that the set-point controller can

easily handle. The normal range used here is 20% of the

methane set point. If the methane production rate rises past
CH4max, then the cause is attributed to a significant feed
overload. To avoid running the risk of being too late in
decreasing the dilution rate (the set-point controller is conservatively tuned), the algorithm first sets the dilution rate to
a very low value, Dlow (e.g., 0.001/day), thus ensuring that
the sluggish set-point controller approaches the new dilution
rate from below.
A drop in the methane rate to below CH4min is due to a
severe underload or to feed inhibition. A change in the sign
of the steady-state gain is a possibility. If this is not the case,
the set-point controller, by increasing the dilution rate
[slowly and only up to a maximum value below the maximum specific growth rate of the acid utilizing methanogens,
which is 0.37/day, according to the model of Pullammanappallil (1993)], will increase the methane rate and may eventually return the system to the set point. If, however, the sign
of the process gain has been changed the digester will respond to increases in the dilution rate by further lowering
the methane rate. If the methane drops below the minimum
bound, then a t test is performed on the last 30 data points
to statistically determine whether the methane rate is indeed
dropping. If it is dropping then the algorithm recognizes a
change in the sign of the gain and exits the set-point control
loop.
The preceding digester operation at a high dilution rate
might have caused some of the biomass to wash out and the
digester might have a high concentration of an inhibitory
intermediate. Hence, before implementing the CYCL,
which is appropriate when the sign of the steady-state gain
has changed, the digester is batch operated for an interval of
time. The batch phase stops the rise in inhibitor concentration and has an objective to reduce the concentration of
intermediates to noninhibitory levels. While the digester is
operated in a batch mode, hydrogen is generated by the
conversion of propionic and butyric acids to acetic acid and
utilized by the hydrogen utilizing methanogens. Once the
levels of propionic and butyric acids drop, the hydrogen
concentration will rapidly decrease. Thus, whichever view
of the inhibitory intermediates is correct, a decrease of propionic and butyric acid concentrations to normal levels implies reduction of the inhibitory intermediates. Therefore, if
propionate and butyrate measurements are available (periodic off-line measurements are obtained as part of the conventional operation of anaerobic digesters), the batch phase
is terminated when the concentrations of these organic acids
drop to close to their normal levels (e.g., to less than 200 mg
COD/L for the sum of the two). If propionate and butyrate
measurements are not available, the duration of the batch
period can be decided from the following reasoning: during
the batch phase, if intermediates were initially at inhibitory
levels their consumption will reduce their inhibition and as
a result the methane rate will start rising (due to dynamics
this may not occur immediately). Later, the methane will
start dropping due to reduced substrate levels. Thus, the
decision to terminate the batch phase can be based on when

PULLAMMANAPPALLIL ET AL.: CONTROL OF ANAEROBIC DIGESTERS

15

Figure 1. Flow chart of the expert system.

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BIOTECHNOLOGY AND BIOENGINEERING, VOL. 58, NO. 1, APRIL 5, 1998

a downward trend of the methane production rate is confirmed. The recommended procedure then is, after a short
minimum interval (e.g., 8 h), to stop the batch phase when
two measurements are obtained that are by more than 2
measurement-noise standard deviations below the maximum value of the methane rate in the batch interval. A
statistical test involving more data points is not used because with the experimental setup the frequency of methane
rate readings is very low at low methane rates. If no increase
in the methane rate is observed, as would be the case if at
the beginning of the batch phase the concentration of the
intermediates is low, the phase is terminated after the end of
the minimum interval.
After the termination of the batch phase the algorithm
enters a region in which the primary control law is the
previously described CYCL, according to which the dilution rate changes in proportion to the methane rate to maintain the nominal volumetric yield. This law is well suited for
responding to feed inhibitors. In rare instances, however, the
drop in the methane rate that brought the algorithm to
CYCL might have been caused by a very severe underload
that dropped the methanogen specific growth rate to below
the dilution rate. Then the nominal volumetric yield cannot
be maintained and the CYCL will keep decreasing the dilution rate toward zero. To prevent this, when the dilution
rate drops to 75% of the value at the start of the CYCL
(Dbase), it is kept at that value for five sampling intervals.
Methane production data obtained during this period are
then used to predict whether or not the methanogens are
washing out. Extrapolation is carried out with a secondorder polynomial fit and an exponential fit. If the predicted
minimum methane rate using either extrapolation methods
is less than 10% of the normal methane production rate, then
the digester is switched back to the CYCL. Otherwise the
digester will continue being maintained at a constant dilution rate until either washout is predicted or until the volumetric yield increases to its nominal value (as will eventually happen if the feed conditions return to normal). In both
cases then the algorithm switches to the CYCL. In case the
methane rate is dropping, the CYCL will reduce the dilution
rate until the methane rate stabilizes. If the feed conditions
return to normal then the CYCL will increase the dilution
rate in response to the increase in the methane production
rate, thus moving the digester toward the set point. When
the methane rate reaches the set point, the algorithm
switches to set-point control. This achieves bumpless transfer. Furthermore, an earlier switch is risky because the
CYCL may be operating at a dilution rate only slightly less
than the methanogen specific growth rate.
As can be seen from the foregoing discussion, the control
system chooses the appropriate control strategy based on the
state (or health) of the digester as inferred from the methane
production rate. It is expected that given the same information, an expert operator of the digester would go through
a similar decision making process and take the same measures. Like any other expert system, the system proposed
here contains the elements knowledge source, knowledge

base, and inference engine. The source of the knowledge

comes from the trends in measurements that have been
quantitated and statistically analyzed (either through a t test
or extrapolation). For example, the knowledge source tells
whether the methane rate is actually decreasing, increasing,
or has not changed. The knowledge base consists of information pertaining to the action to be taken based on the state
of the system. For example, information in the knowledge
base includes such information as if an overload occurs,
then drop the dilution rate. The part of the system that
contains the logical formulas for selecting and applying the
knowledge and facts contained in the knowledge base is the
inference engine. This element then ascertains the disturbance on the process; i.e., whether an overload, underload,
or inhibitor has entered the process after comparing the
methane production trends to nominal values.
MATERIALS AND METHODS
The expert system was tested on a laboratory scale 1.7-L
digester. This experimental setup is shown in the schematic
diagram of Figure 2. The digester is equipped with on-line
measurement of the methane production rate and computer
control of the dilution rate. The entire setup is interfaced to
an IBM compatible personal computer. The feed is pumped
through a computer controlled peristaltic pump equipped
with a second pump head to withdraw effluent. Hence, effluent is withdrawn at the same rate as the feed is pumped.
The gas vented from the digester is scrubbed off its carbon
dioxide content by passing it through a column of soda lime.

Figure 2. The bench scale digester used in the experiments.

PULLAMMANAPPALLIL ET AL.: CONTROL OF ANAEROBIC DIGESTERS

17

The methane vented from the digester accumulates in one

limb of the U tube by displacing the liquid. When the liquid
in the other limb rises to a certain level, a float switch is
tripped, which causes two events to happen simultaneously.
A signal is sent to the computer and the methane from the
first limb is exhausted, which resets the liquid level. By
measuring the time between two successive signals and
given that the volume of methane that triggers the signal is
known, the methane production rate can be calculated.
Volatile organic acid concentrations were measured off-line
using gas chromatography. Phenol was measured off-line
using UV absorbance spectroscopy.
Normal operating conditions are a dilution rate of 0.05/
day and a digestion temperature of 35C. The feed was a
glucose medium in which the nominal concentration of glucose was 28.8 g/L. The composition of other nutrients is
given in Pullammanappallil (1993). While making a feed
overload or an underload, only the glucose concentration
was changed. Sodium propionate was added to the feed to
always maintain a culture of propionate degrading bacteria
in the digester. During normal operating conditions the
methane production rate varies between 1.0 and 1.3 L/day.
EXPERIMENTAL VALIDATION
The expert system was implemented on the bench scale
laboratory digester described in the previous section. The
efficacy of the expert system in preventing digester imbalance when the digester was exposed to disturbances like a
feed overload, feed underload, and phenol entering with the
feed was tested.

Figure 3. Expert system response to a severe overload. The feed glucose

concentration is tripled from its nominal value.

Feed Overload

Feed Underload

Two tests were performed with an earlier slightly different

version of the expert system (Pullammanappallil et al.,
1991). In this version the digester was operated at a constant
dilution rate 0.05/day, and the expert system kicked in only
if the methane production rate increased or decreased by
20% of the normal value. Figures 3 and 4 show the response
of the expert system to this disturbance. In both tests the
glucose concentration in the feed was stepped up to 86.4
from 28.8 g/L for approximately 140 h. Prior experiments
showed that this disturbance causes the digester to fail if the
dilution rate is kept constant. The expert system entered
set-point control when the methane rate went past the maximum limit. When the glucose concentration was tripled, the
first response was an increase in methane rate. Because the
methane production rate went above the upper bound, the
controller decreased the dilution rate to Dlow (40.001/day)
and the dilution rate was slowly brought up. The controller
was able to maintain the set point. The total volatile organic
acid levels remained below 300 mg COD/L. After the overload was removed, the controller increased the dilution rate
to maintain the set point. The response of the expert system
to both tests was similar.

The performance of the expert system to feed underloads

was then studied. Three tests were carried out: a mild underload, a moderate underload, and a severe underload. For
the severe underload a slightly different earlier version of
the expert system was used (Pullammanappallil et al., 1991)
where the CYCL was implemented if the methane production rate remained below CH4min for three consecutive sampling intervals, regardless of whether it was increasing or
decreasing. In the present version of the expert system the
constant yield policy was implemented only if the methane
production rate was less than 80% of the normal value and
was decreasing according to a t test.
Figure 5 shows the expert system response to a mild
underload where the glucose concentration was dropped
from a nominal value of 28.8 to 20.8 g/L. The low substrate
concentration caused methane to drop. However, the controller was able to bring the methane rate back to the set
point by increasing the dilution rate from 0.05/day to approximately 0.06/day to maintain the set point. Figure 6
shows the expert system response to a moderate underload.
The glucose concentration in the feed was halved. The response was similar to that of the mild underload. The dilu-

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Figure 5. Expert system response to a mild underload. The feed glucose

concentration is reduced by 28%.

Figure 4. Expert system response to a severe overload. The feed glucose

concentration is tripled from its nominal value.

tion rate was increased to approximately 0.075/day to maintain the set point. When the glucose concentration was
brought back to normal, then the dilution rate dropped close
to 0.05/day.
Figure 7 shows the expert system response to a severe
underload. No glucose was added to the feed, a 100% underload. The feed still contained casamino acids and yeast
extract that could be used by the bacteria as a source of
energy. The glucose concentration was dropped at 10 h and
this was sustained for 68 h. The methane production rate
began to drop and the controller increased the dilution rate
but could not maintain the set point. Hence, the expert system concluded that the disturbance had caused a change in
the sign of the steady-state gain and implemented the CYCL
after operating the digester batch for half a day. When the
feed was switched to normal, the methane production rate
immediately increased above the upper limit. The expert
system not only brought the digester into the set-point control mode but also sensed the response as having been
caused by an overload, so it dropped the dilution rate to
0.001/day. This drop in dilution rate caused the methane
production rate to remain below CH4min, and once again the
expert system went to the batch phase that precedes the
CYCL. This response was unwarranted and would have

been prevented if the present requirement of a decreasing

methane rate had been incorporated into the expert system.
Eventually, the CYCL brought the digester back to normal
operating conditions (i.e., a dilution rate of approximately

Figure 6. Expert system response to a moderate underload. The feed

glucose concentration is reduced by 50%.

PULLAMMANAPPALLIL ET AL.: CONTROL OF ANAEROBIC DIGESTERS

19

Figure 7. Expert system response to a severe underload. The feed glucose concentration is reduced to 0.

0.05/day). The yield during batch operation is actually infinity. However, this phase is shown to be at a yield of 1000
L methane/L feed in the yield plot of Figure 7. Volatile
organic acid concentrations are not shown for any of the
underload experiments because these remained below the
detectable levels of the gas chromatograph (i.e., <10 mg
COD/L).

Figure 8. Expert system response to a 12-h phenol addition.

In the second test, after 27 h of phenol addition the expert

system sensed the change in the sign of the steady-state
gain. At this point the methane production rate had dropped
below the lower bound and had continued to drop even after
increasing the dilution rate (Fig. 10). Subsequently, a batch

Feed Inhibitor
To test the expert system against a feed inhibitor, 40 g/L of
phenol were added to the feed. Two tests were conducted; in
the first test phenol was added to the digester for 12 h, and
in the second test phenol was added for 36 h.
Figure 8 depicts the expert system response to a 12-h
phenol addition. The expert system was able to maintain the
set point by increasing the dilution rate. This action did not
cause any adverse effects on the microorganisms. Volatile
organic acids began to accumulate; however, they dropped
after the phenol was removed. Phenol concentration in the
digester reached 900 mg/L (Fig. 9). This was not high
enough to cause a change in the sign of the steady-state
gain; as a result, the lowering of growth rates was compensated by an increase in dilution rate.

20

Figure 9. pH and phenol concentration in the digester in response to a

12-h phenol addition with feedphenol concentration of 40 g/L.

BIOTECHNOLOGY AND BIOENGINEERING, VOL. 58, NO. 1, APRIL 5, 1998

Figure 10. Beginning of expert system response to a 36-h phenol addition with feedphenol concentration of 40 g/L. The steady-state gain
changes sign.

phase followed. The methane production rate profile during

batch operation is shown in Figure 10. When it was confirmed that the volatile organic acid concentration levels
were not high, the digester switched to the CYCL mode.
This mode of operation continued until the methane rate
reached the set point, after which the mode of operation was
switched to set-point control. Figure 11 depicts the response
of the expert system for the whole duration of the experiment. The pH, individual volatile organic acids concentration, and phenol concentration are shown in Figure 12.
During the constant yield operation the digester was operated at a dilution rate of 0.025/day for most of the time.
This indicates that there was a 50% inhibition of the process, because the digester could handle only half the nominal feed rate to maintain the nominal yield. This observation
is consistent with that found in the literature. Studies on
phenol inhibition in anaerobic digesters (Parkin et al., 1983)
have shown that about 2000 mg/L of phenol causes 50%
inhibition. The concentration of phenol in the digester when
it went batch was 1600 mg/L (Fig. 12), which is close to the
value reported in the literature. Phenol was degraded into
propionate through some intermediate compounds, resulting
in propionate accumulation in the digester (Fig. 12). The
presence of intermediate compounds was indicated by the
delay between phenol depression and propionate accumulation. Propionate accumulated to levels of 4000 mg/L. Phenol degradation and the implications of using propionate as
an indicator of digester imbalance are discussed in detail in
Pullammanappallil (1993).
After the methane rate reached the nominal set point, the
operation of the digester was handed to the set:point controller. Very soon after this the accumulated propionate
started to degrade to acetate and then methane, causing an
increase in the methane production rate. The controller immediately dropped the dilution rate, assuming that this increase was due to an overload. Once all the propionate was
degraded the dilution rate was brought back to 0.05/day.

Figure 11. Complete expert system response to a 36-h phenol addition.

Thus, the expert system successfully operated the digester

even under adverse conditions like high propionate and
low pH.
CONCLUSIONS
An expert system to prevent digester imbalance was developed. This system deals successfully with challenging control problems such as unmeasured disturbances that change
the process steady-state gain from positive to negative or
that brings the process to a state of zero steady-state gain.
The expert system incorporates two essential control laws, a
conventional set-point control law and a CYCL. The latter
changes the dilution rate in proportion to the methane production rate and is appropriate when the set point cannot be
maintained and it is the near optimal response to the most
common cause of change in the sign of process gain. It
should be noted that this policy can be used for other biochemical processes where instead of methane production
rate, the rate of production of a product should be used.
The expert system was experimentally tested against a
variety of disturbances in the form of feed overloads, feed
underloads, and a feed inhibitor. Some of these disturbances
caused the above-mentioned changes in the process steady-

PULLAMMANAPPALLIL ET AL.: CONTROL OF ANAEROBIC DIGESTERS

21

Figure 12. pH and acetate, propionate, and phenol concentrations in the

digester in response to a 36-h phenol addition with feedphenol concentration of 40 g/L.

state gain. These disturbances, especially the addition of

phenol, resulted in adverse growth conditions for the bacterial populations. The expert system successively prevented digester failure and enabled recovery from imbalanced conditions, irrespective of the type of disturbance.
The authors gratefully acknowledge financial support by the National Science Foundation and the Gas Research Institute.

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BIOTECHNOLOGY AND BIOENGINEERING, VOL. 58, NO. 1, APRIL 5, 1998