Biochemical Methane Potential

Basics

• A measure of the total amount of Biomethane / Biogas a feedstock (or rather Pollutant, if used in a similar manner to [[BOD] ) will produce after undergoing “complete” Anaerobic Digestion
  • If it is similarly always an overshoot (in a manner similar to Theoretical Yield / Carnot Efficiency ) ways to make that number less shocking of an overshoot, via using YOUR bioreactor’s biota (rather than a model organism) etc may be of interest (although obviously still would be an overshoot due to entropy etc)
• Sometimes referred to as “Biomethane Potential”, and abbreviated as “BMP” or “BCMP”

Table of Various Materials

• PPO
  • Algae Oil
  • Canola Oil
  • Castor Bean Oil / Castor Oil
  • Soybean Oil
• WCO
• Glycerin
• Black Water
  • Sewage Sludge / Sewage Sludge Slurry

External Links

• A 2019 Paper in “Water” Titled “ Biochemical Methane Potential (BMP) Assay Method for Anaerobic Digestion Research”
• A 2023 Paper in “Environmental Advances” Titled “Comparative of experimental and theoretical biochemical methane potential generated by municipal solid waste”
• A 2020 Article in “Front. Energy Research Sec. Bioenergy and Biofuels” Titled “Power and Limitations of Biochemical Methane Potential (BMP) Tests”
  • ” Appropriate Applications of BMP Tests

The BMP is the maximum amount of methane that can be recovered from a substrate per mass of substrate organic matter as volatile solids (VS) or chemical oxygen demand (COD). Determination of the BMP of a substrate or a mixture is the most common reason to conduct a BMP test. Similarly, BMP tests are one option to measure the impact of a pre-treatment on substrate's degradability, although the transferability to continuously operated systems is questionable (Janke et al., 2019). Providing optimal conditions for the AD process is key in order to achieve the highest possible degree of degradation. Therefore, the conditions applied in a BMP test aim at the best possible environment for microbial growth. This includes using inoculum from a well-functioning digester (Raposo et al., 2011), including a positive control (such as microcrystalline cellulose) to check the performance of the inoculum (VDLUFA, 2011; Holliger et al., 2016), choosing a suitable inoculum-to-substrate ratio (ISR) to avoid both over- or under-loading of the process (Koch et al., 2019), providing a suitable and constant temperature combined with a gentle mixing, and removing the oxygen from the headspace by flushing with an inert gas prior to incubation (Koch et al., 2015a). Additionally, tests continue until methane production rate is very low to avoid an underestimation of the BMP due to only partial degradation of slowly degradable substrates (Holliger et al., 2016). By definition, the methane yield achieved in continuous experiments or in full-scale plants should usually be lower compared to the value obtained in a BMP test (Holliger et al., 2017). This is implied by the word biochemical methane potential.”