Development of a model for assessing methane formation in rising main sewers

Significant methane formation in sewers has been reported recently, which may contribute significantly to the overall greenhouse gas emission from wastewater systems. The understanding of the biological conversions occurring in sewers, particularly the competition between methanogenic and sulfate-reducing populations for electron donors, is an essential step for minimising methane emissions from sewers. This work proposes an extension to the current state-of-the-art models characterising biological and physicochemical processes in sewers. This extended model includes the competitive interactions of sulfate-reducing bacteria and methanogenic archaea in sewers for various substrates available. The most relevant parameters of the model were calibrated with lab-scale experimental data. The calibrated model described field data reasonably well. The model was then used to investigate the effect of several key sewer design and operational parameters on methane formation. The simulation results showed that methane production was highly correlated with the hydraulic residence time (HRT) and pipe area to volume (A/V) ratio showing higher methane concentrations at a long HRT or a larger A/V ratio.