The D-AnBioC process was studied in relation to: (1) mesophilic or thermophilic systems

(based on operating temperatures); (2) single or multi-stage systems (based on reactor

configurations); and (3) batch or continuous systems (based on operational sequences with
various other types of OS) (Forster-Carneiro et al. 2008a, b; Fdez-Guelfo et al. 2010;
Guendouz et al. 2010; Ahn et al. 2010; Yabu et al. 2011; Duan et al. 2012; Zeshan et al.
2012; and Mussoline et al. 2012). For example, it is reported that there are 197 commercial
facilities treating the OS (especially that of MSW) in Europe. This is contributing to more than
90 % of the anaerobic plants worldwide, with total capacities of 6 million tonnes/year
(Mattheeuws 2011). In that, more than 3.5 million tonnes of OS are treated ([60 %) with the
D-AnBioC processes. Commercial designs like DRANCO, Kompo gas systems (thermophilic
systems), and Valorga (meshophilic system) are commonly used in Europe. Also, the Linde
process (dry, two-stage continuous process) and Biocel systems (dry, single-stage, batch
processes) are also used in different parts of world.

Overall, D-AnBioC has an advantage of treating OS with the wide range of biodegradable organic contents, that is,
between 60 and 95 %. It is rarely operated at OS less than 60 %. In addition, D-AnBioC is reported to have less risks
due to the floating fibrous materials on the top of digesters, which is common phenomenon observed in W-AnBioC
processes (Kalia and Singh 1998). However, the D-AnBioC is more sensitive due to the accumulation of
toxic/inhibiting components like VFAs, ammonia-N and heavy metals (Chen et al. 2008; Jha et al. 2011; Zhang et al.
2012; Duan et al. 2012; Zeshan et al. 2012), which leads to possible disruptions of syntrophic relationships between
the different groups of micro-organisms co-existing within the system. The D-AnBioC also provides a high
accumulation of sludge. There are few batch processes, such as, SEBAC, Biopercolate and DiCom that are designed
and developed to minimize the above discussed problems. Also, few research studies have considered: (1) pre-
treatment of OS (He et al. 2008; Zhu et al. 2010; Liang et al. 2011); (2) co-digestion concepts (Naomichi and Yutaka
2007; Maritza et al. 2008; Liu et al. 2009; Li et al. 2011a; Zhang et al. 2012; Mussoline et al. 2012); (3) adjusting
C/N ratio (Zeshan et al. 2012); (4) effective mixing of digestate within the systems (Kayhanian 1995; Sharma et al.
2000; Forster-Carneiro et al. 2007a, 2008b; Guendouz et al. 2010; Zeshan et al. 2012); (5) pre-aeration steps
(Charles et al. 2009; Walker et al. 2009); and (6) addition of nutrients, minerals and buffering agents (Yadvika et al.
2004; Zeshan et al. 2012) to improve performance of the D-AnBioC system.
The main aim of this review paper is to provide current trends in D-AnBioC research, factors affecting D-AnBioC
and design considerations using case studies. In addition, knowledge gaps and research needs in D-AnBioC
processes are also indentified.
The D-AnBioC system is mainly designed to treat OS from four different sources, including,
agriculture waste, community waste, animal waste and industrial waste. So far, food waste,
fruits and vegetable waste, organic fraction MSW (OF-MSW), garden waste, straw waste,
forest residues, energy crops, grasses, dewatered domestic wastewater sludge, industrial
waste and sludge, animal waste (manure, animal fat and abattoir) and paper waste sources
are effectively used as sole source or co-digested using D-AnBioC process (Gunaseelan
2004; Naomichi and Yutaka 2007; Ahn and Smith 2008; Fernandez et al. 2008; He et al.
2008; Kusch et al. 2008; Buendia et al. 2009; Liang et al. 2011; Duan et al. 2012; Zhang et
al. 2012; Guendouz et al. 2012; Mussoline et al. 2012). Some of these research studies are
summarized in Table 2. However, the selection of a particular substrate for D-AnBioC is
necessary and dependent on, but not limited to, the following factors: (1) OS flow and mass
flux; (2) physico-chemical characteristics of OS; (3) economic factors affecting process
control parameters; and (4) meeting the designed objective.
Considering the agricultural waste production on a global scale, it is estimated that around 7
billion tonnes of crop and ligno-cellulosic residues of cereals are disposed of every year (Lal
2008). In particular, around 2.9 9 103 million tonnes of cereal crops, 1.6 9 102 million tonnes
of pulse crops, 1.4 9 10 million tonnes of oil seed crops and 5.4 9 102 million tonnes of
plantation crops are reported to be produced annually (Kumar et al. 2008). Similarly, per-
capita MSW generation from different parts of the world varied between 0.4 and 2.1 kg/day.
Considering the average value of 1.3 kg/per-capita/day with total global population at 7.10
billion, MSW generation is roughly estimated to be around 9.23 million tonnes per day. It is
predicted that the MSW generation will be approximately 3 billion tonnes by the year 2025
(Charles et al. 2009). The production of fruit and vegetable waste is also considered as an
important matter with regard to existing disposal practices (Bouallagui et al. 2005).
Similarly, domestic wastewater sludge generation is estimated at about 50 g of dry matter
per day per person (Rulkens 2008). This roughly contributes to 0.36 million tonnes for sludge
management in a day. Finally, industrial wastes and forest residue are also generated in
significant amounts. There are different routes envisaged and studied for the effective
utilization of these OS on the basis of its mass flow and further to meet the objective of safe
disposal practices. Among them, the D-AnBioC technology competes with the other
renewable energy recovery projects and it is considered as a green technology.
However, large quantities of OS remain unutilized with the D-AnBioC, due to its complex,
heterogenic physico-chemical characteristics (cellulose: hemicelluloses: lignin) and thus the
requisite for the process optimization of individual OS. CH 4 is generated mainly from the
cellulose (conversion takes several weeks) and hemicellulose (conversion takes few days)
content of OS, as presented in Eqs. 1 and 2 below:

Limited CH4 emanation is reported from the lignin bioconversion processes under D-AnBioC
and W-An-BioC conditions, because of its recalcitrant nature (Komilis and Ham 2003).
Therefore, different degrees of pre-treatment were necessary for OS, which has varying
percentages of cellulose, hemicelluloses, and lignin content to increase the substrate
solubility and subsequently to accelerate the biodegradation rate (Charles et al. 2009). Since
the final products of anaerobic bioconversion processes mainly rely on the characteristics of
OS, selection of appropriate pretreatment conditions and optimization of process parameters
suitable for a particular OS is highly important. In many cases, total organic carbon (C) and
total Kjeldahl nitrogen (N) contents of the OS are considered as prime and important
parameters to design the process variables. The C/N ratio of the different OS varies widely
between 6 (for example, animal slurries) and 500 (for example, wood shavings) but the
required C/N ratio is reported to be 2030 (Weiland 2006; Bouallagui et al. 2009; Li et al.
2011b; Jha et al. 2011; Khalid et al. 2011; Kusch et al. 2012). Thus, the selection of OS for D-
AnBioC should consider the C/N ratio as one of the important factors along with TS contents.
Protein is the major source of N in OS, which can solubilize into ammonia-N and accumulate
under anaerobic conditions (Jokela and Rintala 2003). Even though N is considered as one of
the major sources for microbial growth, accumulation of ammonia-N is reported to affect the
bio-reactors performance in D-AnBioC (Chen et al. 2008; Li et al. 2011a; Zeshan et al.
2012). Under high TS content, the rate of substrate conversion is reduced with lower biogas
yield (Fernandez et al. 2008; Li and Yan 2011; Bernet et al. 2011; Guendouz et al. 2012). This
may have been due to a C/N imbalance within the system. Thus, TS of the OS substrates
along with physicochemical properties of the substrates are to be mainly considered for the
D-AnBioC process to control overall CH4 yield. It was noted that the TS of OS influenced the
following parameters: rheological properties and viscosity of the reactor contents, fluid
dynamics, clogging and solid sedimentation that can directly affect the overall mass transfer
rates within the bioreactors (Karim et al. 2005; Bernet et al. 2011; Guendouz et al. 2012).
Other than C and N, characterization of OS for carbohydrates, proteins, fats, sugars, VFAs
and alcohols are also important for biogas projects. Therefore, clear knowledge about the
substrate characteristics and degree of pre-treatment requirements for specific OS are more
important for D-AnBioC than W-AnBioC.

Table 3 summarizes the characteristics of various OS and its Methane potentials.

Generally, the methane emission potential of the substrate is calculated using
simple laboratory incubation tests, which is developed to select the appropriate
substrate for D-AnBioC at the preliminary stage. The fermentation test (GB21) and biochemical
methane potential (BMP) are two different methods available for the screening of OS and in
calculating CH4 yield. The BMP test is originally proposed by Owens and hynoweth (1993) and
generally carried out in serum bottles with 20 % (v/v) inocula. Total incubation period is for 60
days (minimum) and 120 days (maximum) under 37 C (mesophilic) or 55 C (thermophilic)
temperature. The GB21 test is modified from the BMP test and developed specifically for the
selection of OS for D-AnBioC application. This is based on a 21-day incubation study. While
this test can vary in length (28-day test, GB28), 21 days is the preferred length of time (Binner et
al. 1999). There are other methods, such as the incubation test-GS90 and BM100, etc., also
developed by different authors, to enable understanding of the biodegradability of the OS.
Supplementary details are presented in a later section (Wagland et al. 2009). It was reported that
the GS90 test results correlated at more than 95 %with the GB21 test results (Binner et al. 1999).
However, the authors concluded that the test duration of 21100 days (used in various
biodegradability studies) are not practically applicable for routine analysis due to the time scale
for getting reliable data, as well as the financial and operational implications in the field. Other
aerobic test methods used in place of anaerobic testmethods (GB21, BMP, GS90, etc.), or
enzymatic degradation methods (ECD-enzymatic cellulose degradation; EHT-enzymatic
hydrolysis test), are highlighted. Available aerobic methods include: specific oxygen uptake rate
(SOUR), respiration index (RI), static respiration index (SRI), dynamic respiration index (DRI),
dynamic respiration over 4 days (DR4), and German static respiration index (AT4 and AT7 over
4 and 7 days of analysis, respectively). Analysis time varied from 4 h (minimum) to 8 days
(maximum) to get reliable results. It reported that the correlation factors (R2) were: (1) 0.80 for
GB21 to AT4 test (Cossu and Raga 2008); (2) 0.650.87 for BMP to ECD test (Rodriguez et al.
2005); and (3) 0.83 for GS90 to AT7 test (Binner et al. 1999). Thus, the GB21, BMP and GS90
test results can be calculated easily from short term aerobic tests using AT4, ECD and AT7
methods, respectively.

The major cost factor involved in designing a particular treatment system relies mainly on
the quantity and quality of the OS to be potentially handled. Besides OS quality, other cost
factors include: collection, transportation, segregation, pretreatment, and operation and
maintenance costs along with manpower cost in the centralized design. However, the D-
AnBioC systems seem to be more economical than W-AnBioC in treating OS because of the
following: a smaller reactor volume, no internal mixing arrangement for continuous mixing
(in some cases), can handle a variety of feed stocks, and can attain maximum CH 4 yield.
While the multi-stage D-AnBioC system is more expensive to build and maintain, total CH 4
yield is much higher to offset the cost factor (Ward et al. 2008). In many places, the
designed centralized facilities were reported to obtain insufficient feed stocks to operate at
their full capacities throughout the year, thus, net gain tended towards a negative value. On
the other hand, it is analyzed that
the decentralized systems can be used to substitute major costs involved in collection,
transportation and segregation to maximize the total economic gain (Appels et al. 2011;
Zeshan et al. 2012). Therefore, the understanding of OS flow and its characteristics are
important in the design of the D-AnBioC systems in order to meet the objective of safe
disposal practices as well as to mitigate associated environmental impacts.

A number of commercial plants, pilot plants and proto-type bio-reactors to treat OS have
been developed using the D-AnBioC processes. Four major considerations with the bio-
reactor design for continuous operations include:
(a) Organic Loading Rate (OLR)The OLR is a measure of the biological conversion
capacity of the anaerobic system. The OLR is calculated as per Eqs. (3, 4) below;

where OLR = organic loading rate (kg substrate/m3 digester/day), RT = Retention

time (days), S = substrate concentration (kg substrate in terms of TVS), V =
volume of the digester/bioreactor (m3), Q = flow rate (m3/day). The OLR
evaluates the efficiency of a digester, required food-to-microbes (F/M) ratio, and
 overall process performance (Jha et al. 2011). For the D-AnBioC processes, higher
TS content results in a corresponding decrease in reactor volume. Thus, it
enables a higher volumetric OLR between 12 and 15 kg VS/m 3/day during
continuous bioreactor operations (Nizami and Murphy 2010; Guendouz et al.
2010). Whereas, W-AnBioC can work with a maximum OLR of 5 kg VS/m 3/day
(Nizami and Murphy 2010). Duan et al. (2012) highlighted that the D-An- BioC
system can support 46 times higher OLR and obtain similar CH 4 yield and VS
reduction as the conventional W-AnBioC system.
(b) Solid/Digestate Retention Time (SRT)SRT is basically a ratio between volumetric
inflow and outflow of OS with respect to time. It is the average time solids reside
within the digester (Appels et al. 2008). The SRT is mainly associated with the
function stability of the reactor. At a minimum of 14 days and a maximum of 60
days, the SRT is reported to be experimented with the D-AnBioC system for
various feed stocks (Nayono et al. 2009; Nizami and Murphy 2010). A more
efficient system required less SRT with maximum biogas yield at a given OLR and
possible with the thermophilic system operations (Jha et al. 2011; Zeshan et al.
2012).
(c) Hydraulic Retention Time (HRT)Generally, HRT will be less considered in the D-
AnBioC process and more closely associated with the SRT because of the high-
solid operations. But, in the case of two-stage or multi-stage D-AnBioC systems,
the HRT plays a major role in the redistribution of nutrients and micro-organisms
in the reactors from one phase to another by leachate exchange practices. Some
of the best examples are the DiCOM, SEBAC, Leachbed and Biocel processes.
Around 320 m3 of liquor is exchanged in DiCOM process during the An-BioC of OF-
MSW at an HRT of 12 days (Walkeret al. 2012). Similarly, in SEBAC, a minimum of
13 days HRT is reported. Thus, it is another important parameter in the design of
the D-An-BioC system for OS. HRT needs to be given more focus in terms of
research aspects in near future.
(d) CH4 YieldMaximizing CH4 yield is of prime importance with the bioreactor design
and plays a key role in manipulating operation conditions. Depending upon the OS
characteristics and degree of pre-treatment levels, the yield can be maximized by
providing appropriate external conditions. Kim and Oh (2011) reported a high gas
production rate of 5 m3/m3/day from food waste mixed with paper waste in co-
digestion studies. A biogas production rate up to 6 m 3/m3/ day was previously
reported by Kayhanian and Tchobanoglous (1993) and Pavan et al. (2000),
whereas Mumme et al.(2010) reported 5.3 m3/ m3/day at OLR of 12.7 kg
VS/m3/day for a mixture of maize silage and barley straw. For OF-MSW, under
thermophilic conditions with the OLR at 2.5 kg VS/m 3/day, a maximum CH4 yield
of 278.4 L CH4/kg of VS reduction was reported (Chaudhary et al. 2009). A
maximum biogas yield of 327 L/kg VS added and a minimum of 121 L/kg VS added were
reported with the 2.6 and 10.7 kg VS/m 3/day OLR in thermophilic D-AnBioC
system, respectively (Zeshan et al. 2012). As mentioned earlier, the OLR, SRT,
HRT and CH4 yield are closely interlinked parameters and need to be considered
while designing the D-AnBioC system for OS (as shown in Fig. 1) (also supported
by Ward et al. 2008; Nizami and Murphy 2010; Zeshan et al. 2012). These four
major factors are mainly influenced by other associated variables such as OS
characteristics, OS flow, temperature, digestate recirculation rate, and inhibiting
substrates. There are a number of commercial plants designed and operated with
varying conditions as listed in Table 4. Most of the industrial-scale units built prior
to the 1980s relied mainly on W-AnBioC processes.