Advanced control-oriented modeling of two-stage anaerobic digesters for resilient and energy-efficient biogas production

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Article ID: 797
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DOI:

https://doi.org/10.18686/cest797

Keywords:

clean energy; anaerobic digestion; biogas; model predictive control; dynamic stability; ADM1; renewable methane

Abstract

Anaerobic Digestion (AD) is a key technology in the circular bioeconomy due to increasing demand for sustainable energy and efficient organic waste management. Advanced configurations, such as the Two-Stage Anaerobic Digestion (TSAD) systems, yield higher methane production and allow for superior operational flexibility. But tight biochemical couplings between stages cause extreme dynamic instability in the face of real-world disturbances. In this study, a reduced-order dynamic model based on Anaerobic Digestion Model No. 1 (ADM1) was employed to study stability behavior and assess advanced control strategies for resilient and energy-efficient biogas generation. Five real disturbance scenarios were simulated: organic loading shock (3–7 kg VS·m⁻3·d⁻1), acidification (pH 6.2 → 5.5), thermal shock (35 → 25 °C), Volatile Fatty Acids (VFA)/ammonia inhibition and feed interruption (48 h). Three control strategies, Proportional Integral Derivative (PID), Fuzzy Logic Control (FLC) and Model Predictive Control (MPC), were examined comparatively under open- and closed-loop operation. Uncontrolled disturbances caused methane yield losses of 40–60% and recovery times >72 h. PID reduced loss to 20–35%, FLC to 10–25%, whereas MPC restricted methane loss to <10% with up to 60% reduction in recovery time. MPC also achieved an improvement in pH compared to PID. The results show that the use of MPC significantly improves the energy recovery efficiency and operational resilience. The proposed reduced-order ADM1 is innovative in that it establishes a computationally efficient framework for modeling TSAD systems, integrating predictive control with energy performance metrics, thus providing stability and scalability attributes.

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Published

2026-06-15

How to Cite

Al Shehihi, J., & Raut, N. (2026). Advanced control-oriented modeling of two-stage anaerobic digesters for resilient and energy-efficient biogas production. Clean Energy Science and Technology, 4(3). https://doi.org/10.18686/cest797

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Vol. 4 No. 3 (2026): In progress

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Copyright (c) 2026 Jasim Al Shehihi, Nitin Raut

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This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

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