Thermal pretreatment and hydraulic retention time in continuous digesters fed with sewage sludge: assessment using the ADM1.

Thermal pretreatment is an interesting technique not only for increasing sludge biodegradability, leading to higher methane productivity, but also for improving degradation rates, allowing full-scale plants to reduce the size of digesters. In this study, the Anaerobic Digestion Model No. 1 (ADM1) was used as a tool to assess the effects of thermal pretreatment and hydraulic retention time (HRT) on the performance of three pilot-scale digesters fed with mixed sludge with/without pretreatment applied to the waste activated sludge fraction.