A Biogas-Based Switching Control Policy for Anaerobic Digestion Systems1

This paper presents a simple switching control policy for driving an anaerobic digestion system from an arbitrary initial state to an optimal setpoint, characterized by the maximum biogas production. A high wastewater treatment efficiency is achieved and a fast convergence to the optimal setpoint is obtained. The main features of this control strategy are its simplicity and ease of implementation, as it is based on the measurement of the biogas outflow rate, which is commonly available in anaerobic digestion systems.