Anaerobic digestion kinetics of wine‐distilleries wastewaters

Experimental results of anaerobic digestion of wine‐distilleries wastewaters are compared with those obtained from two theoretical kinetic models: the substrate utilization model and the methane fermentation model. Both models predict accurately the performance of this depurative process, except at retention times less than 3 days, because the systems works under non‐steady state conditions. For depuration levels greater than 95%, optimum retention time is 6 days, and methane volumes (at STP) produced per gram of substrate added to the digester are 0.24 dm3 g−1 chemical oxygen demand.