Applicability of Anaerobic Digestion Model No. 1 (ADM1) for a specific industrial wastewater: Opium alkaloid effluents

Opium alkaloid processing industries are quite limited throughout the world since cultivation and processing of opium are not practiced in most of the developed countries. However, wastewater generated from this industry is known to be highly polluted with considerable environmental impacts. High rate anaerobic digestion processes are effective in the treatment of opium alkaloid wastewaters that are characterized with relatively low pH and high soluble COD content. Experimental results obtained from the anaerobic treatability studies conducted with lab-scale upflow anaerobic sludge bed reactor (UASB) were simulated by the IWA Anaerobic Digestion Model No. 1 (ADM1). A model based influent characterization which provided consistent results was performed. The validation results indicated that the calibrated ADM1 was able to predict the experimental results of effluent COD, pH, methane and biogas flows with reasonable accuracy. This study demonstrates a useful approach for the implementation of the ADM1 for the treatment of a specific industrial wastewater.